Rules are for fools to obey
by Zkrl
Summary: "Hey Ash, it's me. I think it's time for you to come home." Ashley wiped the blood of her hand. "Why, what's wrong?" Clay's answer was short and clear "I don't trust anyone else." That was all she needed to hear.
1. I'm coming home

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

I'm coming home.

_Dear Ashley, _

_I can quite clearly remember, that there was a time in my life when I was pretty certain of the fact that being a good citizen would be something that eventually ought to bring me some justice. Life on the other hand didn't exactly turn out this citizen-of-the-year kind of way. I am an outlaw, always have been. Still the only thing I'm really sorry about is you having to grow up so far away from your family. But it was only for your own safety. You might wonder why it was just you, that we sent off to live on the other side of the earth, and not Jax. All I can say is that when things went south he was already born, everyone knew about him, sending him away would have only put him, and you for that matter, into that much more danger. But when Gemma got pregnant with you, we managed to keep it a secret and that's how we knew that there was a chance of giving you a safer life away from all of the craziness that is the world of MC. But I need you to know, that no matter how far, you're always in our hearts. And when the time is right we will be united again._

_Love, _

_Dad _

Ashley folded the letter she had read so many times that its edges were starting to rip apart. The big irony was the fact that the life she had lived so far had been a dangerous one non the less. Her first boyfriend, Alexander, had been the son of a powerful Russian mob boss, Maxim. When Alex died, his father took her under his wing. This new 'family' she had didn't see why she should be kept away from everything that was on the other side of the law. On the opposite, Maxim personaly trained her into a women who didn't take shit from no-one.

"Oled sa valmis?" The annoyed sound of Ruslan outside her door brought Ashley out of her thoughts.

"Mhm, lähme," was all she yelled back, before getting up from where she had been sitting and picking up her favorite knife. She had more important things to do than to swoop around in the memory lane. Like cutting up people for example.

The guy they had brought in was now tied to a shaky looking chair. Her job was to make him talk. After breaking two of his fingers and creating painfully deep slashes to his abdomen, he was ready to spill his guts. She only needed to get the name of the guy who had been stupid enough to order a hit on Maxim.

As she was getting her phone to pass on the gathered information, it started ringing.

"Jaa," she answered. The other side of the line went silent for a moment. Soon enough she heard the familiar deep voice. It wasn't the first time Clay had called her. Their first real conversation took place about two years after she had received his letter. Ash wasn't mad at him, she kind of understood where he was coming from. Her mother on the other hand, according to Clay, didn't have it in her to speak to Ashley. Supposedly it would have broken Gemma's heart to hear her voice. Guess it was easier for her that way. Not to Ashley tough.

"Ashley, it's me. I think it's time for you to come home".

Ashley wiped the blood of her hand. "Why, what's wrong?"

Clay's answer was short and clear "I don't trust anyone else." That was all she needed to hear. They had talked about her coming back to the States many times before, all considering the fact that she was now all grown up and also the heat that SAMCRO had been facing for years was almost under control. Still she wasn't ready to face the life of Charming.

Until now.

* * *

The estonian part translation:

"Oled sa valmis?" - Are you ready?

"Mhm, lähme" - Mhm, let's go.

"Jaa" - Yes


	2. Hello, Charming

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

Considering that her life was already on the road for most of the time, balancing between Estonia and Russia, packing up the few things she had didn't take all that long. Saying goodbye to Maxim on the other hand didn't go as smoothly as she had expected. It wasn't that he didn't trust her out of his reach. He knew, that she was smart enough not to betray him in any way, but he didn't see why she needed to go back to the family that had once passed her along to a distant relative just because they thought she might be safer somewhere far away. But with a promise that she would be back as soon as whatever it was that Clay needed her for was done, he let her go.

'Welcome to Charming' read the sign she passed with her rental bike. Although she really wasn't that much into the bike-lifestyle she kind of had an urge to pass through the gates of Teller-Morrow on a roaring Harley. Only thing problematic was the fact that the bike she had gotten seemed to be older than the houses she passed on her way, making all kinds of weird noises. Luckily for her the destination wasn't that far away. The moment she saw the sign her heart started thumping. "Suck it up" she muttered to herself. As she made her way inside the parking lot, she saw a long line of black bikes lined up on the left side. She was smart enough to know that she shouldn't make herself a self-proclaimed member of the club with lining her soon to be dead loaned Harley next to those.

"I'm gonna beat your sorry ass in the next round, Killah," said Tig while lifting a bottle of cold beer to his now fifty shades of purple eye.

"Yeah, like always," came the response from Hap, accompanied with a deep raspy laugh, which caught the attention of the nearby crow-eaters. Hap could see the desire in the eyes of those skanky and drunk faces that he didn't even know the names of.

"Who's that bitch?" Tig wondered out loud, spotting the blonde haired women in black leather jacket and dark jeans walking in their direction.

"Don't know, but dibs," Happy eyed the prey moving their way.

"In your dreams, Hap, I saw her first," Tig put his beer down.

"Hey sugar" made Ashley turn her head towards the guy with black curly hair standing next to a tattooed guy whose black eyes were shooting daggers her way. Fighting the sudden urge to slap that grin of the curly haired ones face, Ashley just rolled her eyes and responded with a fake smile "Oh, hey Latin pop star, where can I find Clay Morrow?"

The response she was expecting didn't come from the sugar-yeller. His crazy but enchanting eyes seemed more amused than angry. The bald guy on the other hand looked like he was prepairing to tackle her .

"What did you just call him?" Happy took a step forward.

Tig quickly put his hand on his brothers shoulder to physically hold him back. "Oh let it be, Hap, I like the spicy ones. Why are you asking for Clay anyways, when you should be asking for me?"

Realizing that this wasn't getting her anywhere she decided to just march past the biker duo and into the clubhouse. The timing of her entering the house was perfect with the lyrics blasting through the ongoing party area 'I came in like a wrecking ball'. Well yeah, yes she did. She wasn't sure, what made her smirk more, the fact that they had made a rock version of that song and played it in a biker club, or the faces she received from the bitches that were lined up next to the pool table.

Just as she felt a hand grab her from behind she heard a surprise filled voice calling out "Ashley?!"


	3. Warrior princess

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

„Ashley?"

With that the hand on her shoulder dropped and she saw a man with gray hair making his way to her. Standing face-to-face with a person she had only seen in a picture that came along with his first letter, Ashley found herself for a moment in loss of words. "Hey, daddy," was all she managed to say with a numb face before Clay grabbed her into a hug so strong, that she had trouble with breathing. She could hear the mumbling all around them and she could practically feel the question marks filling the air. Before she was released by Clay, he whispered into her ear "Will talk about why you are here tomorrow."

Without glancing around she asked him "Are they here?"

Hoping for a clear 'no', Clay looked into her eyes "She's not, but Jax is here somewhere."

It wasn't like she hated her half-brother, but she definitely didn't want anything to do with either one of the two that had never reached out to her. As she stared scanning the area for Jax, her gaze instead stopped to linger on the black eyed guy from outside, who was now looking at her with no trace of kindness in his stare. Actually he even seemed annoyed. "What's his problem?" Ash wondered all too quietly for anyone else to hear.

As Clay cleared his throat, Ash turned her eyes back at the men in front of her. "Hey everyone listen up, this is Ashley. She's my daughter and I'm sure you all wonder why you didn't know about her before, and the reason is simply that we needed to keep her safe and far away from Charming. But now she is here and you all better make her stay as comfortable as possible," looking at Tig, who was practically staring at them with an open mouth, Clay added "Oh, and Tig, don't even think about it." The last part of his small speech was met with laughter and a grunt from Tig mumbling "Yeah, can't promise you that, bro."

"Now carry on everyone, before…" Clay's sentence was cut short with the noise of gunshots. They were under a hit. Someone yelled "Everybody down." As soon as they could hear their own guys, who had been hanging outside, starting to fire back, members inside started making their way out. Ashley had never been afraid of a confrontation. She actually felt the same kind of rush that came with carrying out a hit-job for the mob, so she got up and carefully made her way out the door. Before she could pull out her gun from the inside of her leather jacket, she was pinned to the wall by a tall body which back was covered with a reaper cut.

"Ya have a death wish or something, little missy?" said a rough voice. Ashley, ignoring his comment, caught him of guard as she put her hands around his body searching for something.

"Neh, but you might have, since you're standing in the way of the knife in my hand and the target I'm actually aiming." Before Happy could even look over his shoulder to see what she was talking about, he saw a knife. No scratch that, his favorite knife, flew over the parking lot and straight to the neck of one of the guys on the back of a car that was firing bullets their way. As soon as the guy who was now deathly wounded fell over the edge of the pickup, the other guys seemingly decided to give up and drove away.

First one who made his way to the man with a knife standing out of his neck was a blonde haired guy. As Ashley and others got there, the blonde one pulled the now bended knife out, and looking towards Hap asked "You threw that?"

Hap's face as he saw his knife was all put happy "No, this one did." That statement was accompanied with a death glare that he was all kinds of expert by now.

"Yea, I did, sorry about your butter knife, big boy. But it's not like you could've ever made that much of a good use of it anyways. You're better off without and maybe you're now smarter than pinning me to a wall."

Jax's eyes darted back and forth from now outrageous Happy and a pretty blonde whose growing smirk was definitely the cause of that twitch in Hap's face. "And who exactly are you, warrior princess?"


	4. Get on

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

That comment made her smile, princess was a far fetch from what she really was. Warrior on the other hand suited her quite well.

"I'm Ashley, I presume you're Jackson?"

Jax's face went blank. "Ashley? What? How?"

"Later… Chibs, Tig, get rid of the body" came the order from furious looking Clay.

"Alright, I think that Mayan bitch is mouthing that he wants to see what Skeeters barbeque oven looks like from the inside. Get his feet, Chibbie,"Tig said while giving a dirty smile to Ash. "Wanna join us, Barbie doll?"

For some reason Ashley found herself winking at Tig "Next time". Tig just looked like the right amount of crazy and hilarious, that she didn't even mind the Barbie doll comment that usually pushed her into showing what an iron fist that 'Barbie doll' possessed.

Happy looked at the cheerleader type of girl shifting from one foot to the other. If she thought that being the presidents long lost daughter would give her the right to mess with him, she was dead wrong. No chick mouthed off to him, neither did they touch him or his stuff without his permission. Although her feeling him up before, trying to get his knife, had made him wonder what would those hands feel on him in a whole different situation. But still, bitch made him angry in more than one way, so that he at first didn't even notice the conversation between Clay and her about where she was going to stay. Apparently she had left her stuff in the Charming Inn. Clay insisted that she should stay at the club house, and though she didn't think it was a good idea, an neither did he for that matter, that girl had TROUBLE written all over her face, she finally gave in with a "Okay, fine, I'll stay here and make you biker-badasses feel safe." That remark made him snort. That lucky knife throw didn't make her some kind of a superwoman, he could have snapped her like a twig in his sleep.

"Hap, go with her!" made Happy snap out of his thoughts. Oh that's great, his brat handling skills were starting to wear off. That new babysitting gig would for sure help him in that department.

Trying not to show his annoyance, but kind of failing at it, he let out a breath he apparently had been holding "Okay, prez"

"You don't really have to come" she said while peering at him from the corner of her eye as they were walking towards the line of bikes.

"Just get on" he replied in a voice that sounded more like a growl than English.

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen" she stated passing him in order to reach her rental bike that was sitting on the other side of the lot.

That's exactly what he needed. A stubborn little missy from other side of the world to keep him from enjoying the party that was starting to pick up again and getting a head from some skank who didn't dare to say a word to him unless he was talking to her directly.

As he roared his bike into life, he rode in front of the goldilocks trying to start up a bike that looked like it had last seen the road when disco music was the thing. "Get on, or I'm gonna go and fetch your pink and sparkly stuff myself."

That comment made Ashley's mouth twitch trying to hide a smile. The only pink things she even had were in her underwear drawer. She usually kept her clothes in dark colors, but underneath the surface she liked to have that girly and colorful underwear. But those were the things the agitated man sitting in front of her on a black Harley was never going to see. "Ahh, alright, it looks like even if I do manage to get this thing moving, it would have the speed of a strolling turtle."

She climbed behind him and put her arms on his shoulders.

"You planning on flying away in the middle of the ride? I don't intend on stopping if you do," Happy's annoyed voice announced. With a huff she moved her hands from his shoulders to his torso.

"Can we go now, or are you looking for a seatbelt to strap me down with?"


	5. Let's play

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

As they passed the old houses on the main street she couldn't help but wonder what life would have been like, if she had grown up in Charming. Well for one thing she probably would not have had direct ties to a mob boss. Or the knowledge of strangling a guy two times as big as she was within just a few seconds. Or the ability of making almost anything look like an accident. On the other hand she probably wouldn't have that rage and anger inside of her, that seemed to be making all of her decisions, whether she wanted it or not.

"We're here" he said after stopping in front of the green two-storied building she previously had left her relatively small travelling bag in. There was no point in travelling like a camel, there were stores here. At least she had hoped there would be.

"I'll be back in a few" she told that black eyed man who looked so in a hurry that the little devil on her shoulder wanted to see what kind of reaction she would get from him if she wasn't exactly keeping her promise to be back as soon as possible. For some reason even the thought of him loosing control over his anger made her laugh a little. It was obvious that this man didn't exactly have women messing around with him. Most were probably scared to death just by looking at his tattoos. Which if she was honest to herself were as sexy as they were scary.

Her room was on the second floor. That stupid door of hers didn't open. "What the hell," she thought. There was no way she was going to ask him for help. If she really had to literally break it down from the hinges, then that would have been her doing, not his.

"Need help there, sunshine?" came from Hap, who had the perfect view on the on-going war between Ash and the door.

"No."

As she was almost starting to give up, giving a quick glance down to all too smug looking Happy, she stared at the golden number on the door. 14. Then she took a closer look at the keychain she was holding. 15. "No shit." With a few small steps she moved to the right door. She thought she heard a laugh, but not wanting to look at his face, there wasn't a way for a confirmation.

Happy sat on his bike watching the girl who had just spent ten minutes trying to open a door that wasn't even hers get inside the next one. He just had to laugh. Even the look on her face alone, when he had offered his help, had been priceless.

He had been waiting there for almost ten minutes now. What the fuck was taking her so long? Was she taking a nap, being so exhausted from fighting with a mean door? As another ten minutes passed he had had enough. As he got to her door he didn't even bother with knocking. Opening it up he was just shocked. She was sitting on the bed watching TV.

"What the fuck, I have been waiting outside for almost half an hour just so you could catch up with American Idol bullshit?

She could practically see the smoke coming out of his ears. "Oh sorry, smiley, I was packing and the sound of nothing was boring the hell out of me. So I put the TV on, and who knew that little guy had such a great voice. I'm blown away, like really. Come here, have a look for yourself," she said with a sheepish smile patting at the spot next to her.

"Get your things and move," he apparently didn't find any of this funny.

As she was starting to go down the stairs she heard him muttering something that ended with 'stupid bitch'. Those words made her turn around in the speed of light, demanding "What did you just say?"

But before he could give her an answer, Ashley had made a step behind only to find nothing beneath her feet.

As she was starting to fall down the stairs like a melting ice cream on a sunny day- quick and disastrous, she felt two firm hands grab her, while looking at her with intense eyes that she couldn't translate.


	6. Dare to laugh?

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

On another note, thank you for all the follows and favorites! It's really inspirational. As some of you may have noticed I've been uploading quite often, so far two chapters a day. Well I hope I can keep it up, but my holiday is ending soon .. Still going to give my best to find my way to this story.

* * *

That moment felt like an eternity. As he pulled her away from the stairs, Ashley found herself standing so close to him, that she could practically feel the heat coming off of his body. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it instead. Ashley saw that because she had been lost in staring at his lips. With that realization she tried to back away, but those tattooed hands that were holding her in place didn't make much of a room for that.

"Let's play a little game I like to call 'Remove your hands or I remove them from your body'." As she said that Happy dropped his hands, gave her a puzzling look and headed past her towards his bike. For a moment she felt bad, after all he had just saved her from some unnecessary bruises and even more unnecessary embarrassment.

As Ashley climbed behind him, Happy heard a quiet "Thanks for catching me". For some reason that made him smile. And before he even realized what he was saying he replied to her gratitude with a "Can't exactly have your pretty face tumbling down a flight of stairs". Roaring his bike into life he added "Also I might have laughed and you might have punished me for that later."

When they got back to Teller-Morrow it was about 2AM. The party was still going strong, so after some guy with a mohawk and tattoos on his head named Juice showed Ashley to her room she found herself craving for a drink. Clay had apparently left for the night. The guy with black curls that had caught her attention before was also nowhere to be seen. Trying to avoid both of the other two guys she kind of knew, Jax and Happy, she made her way to the opposite side of the room from where they were having a conversation, which apparently included the all so occasional glances her way. "Wonder who they are gossiping about…"

"I think they're talking about you, miss. Hi, I'm Chucky! Can I get you a drink?"

The guy who said that had a ridiculously happy face. Hands down, that was a person whose name should've been Happy. "I'll take a bear, thanks.. And nice to meet you, I'm Ashley, but you can call me Ash."

"So you're Jax's sister? What did you get for his kids? My aunt used to bring me the coolest teddy bears." His questions came down on her like waterfall. Kids? She was an aunt to someone? Thankfully a voluptuous voice saved her from having to find a way out of this awkward situation. "Don't mind him, Chuck go check whether the gates are closed or not,"Tig sat down on a bar stool next to her.

"So.. I heard your road trip with Killer went smoothly" Tig started.

"Oh yeah, Happy is a great chauffeur. Does he have a car? He could drive me around tomorrow, I need to do some shopping." That made Tig laugh out loud.

"I'd give you a good ride."

"I'll keep that in mind." For some reason talking to him was so easy.

Happy observed the ongoing conversation between Tig and Ashley while some brunette with ridicculous curves was trying to grind on him, whipping her hair so hard that it actually slapped him in the face. "Get off," he snapped. As he now had a better view on his surroundings he could see that Ashley looked like she was having fun. She almost gave off a flirtatious vibe. Without further thinking he was standing and yelling at Tig "Hey, brother, let's have that re-match, your eye looks a bit jealous of its purple neighbor."

Turning to Ashley Tig whispered in her ear "Will you come and cheer for me, doll-face?"

"I'll be there, but wouldn't know how to cheer even if I wanted to"

Getting up to follow others outside, her path was blocked by Jax. "Can we talk?"

"No."


	7. Bringing the heat

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

"No?" Jax stared at her in astonishment.

"What's there to talk about? You're as much of a stranger to me right now, as you have been for the last 27 years. "

"Why are you even here then, if you want nothing to do with us?" Jax asked with a confused face.

"The world doesn't exactly revolve around you, darling," Ash snapped.

Not wanting to carry out that conversation any longer, Ashley gave him a fake smile saying "Don't worry, I'll be out of your shiny hair soon enough." She moved past him and followed the sound that was sure coming from the battlefield. As Ash reached her destination she could see Tig and Happy in the boxing ring, cornering each other while bouncing up and down like they were standing on a trampoline. Albeit both of them were looking rather bloody, she could see that they were clearly still having fun.

After watching them for a few more minutes Ashley felt the weight of sleep coming over her. So she made her way back to her room. It had a bed, a dresser, and a full length mirror. And a whole lot of love… If love was the thing that those various posters were trying to present. She washed her face and climbed to bed.

"You didn't see the trophy I got," said a familiar raspy voice. Ashley watched as Happy walked to her bed. "But that's okay, I brought it to you." His voice was so low-pitched that it was a pure pleasure to just listen. Standing there in front of her bed he didn't look annoyed or angry, like he had before. He was almost smiling. But the look on his face was even better than a smile. It was the look of a man who saw something he desired.

"What are you doing here?" she asked with an insecure voice.

"I said I came to show you my trophies, which one do you want to see first?" he answered with a devilish smile. He was giving her a smoldering look Tyra Banks would have been proud of.

"What? Are you drunk?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm unconscious."

He moved closer until he was right in front of her. Holding out his trophy he dipped one finger in it. It seemed to be holding something white.

"It's whipped cream, baby. I want to know if it's any good." He said while raising his finger to her lips. She put her hands on his, holding it in place, and without thinking licked the whipped cream off of his fingertip.

Next thing he was pulling her on his lap. Putting his hand gently behind her neck, he slowly pressed his lips on hers. "You taste just like glitter mixed with rock 'n' roll."

There was a ring.

She opened her eyes. Instantly remembering the crazy dream she had had. "Oh god," she almost yelled out in horror.

There was another ring. She patted around on her bed for the stupid phone that was for some reason only good for communicating outside the States and not in it. Two messages.

"Great, what now.." The first one was from Maxim saying 'С Днем Рождения, моя милая девушка'. "Oh no, no, no," she had totally forgotten all about that unfortunate day. The other message was from the only real friend she had, E, saying practically the same thing in Estonian 'Palju õnne, mu hull teine pool. Helista!'.

Her only hope was, that no one here remembered or simply knew about it. Trying not to think off it, Ashley made herself presentable, took a quick shower, put on light make-up and fresh clothes. She had decided on wearing denim shorts, purple top and a black jacket. She stumbled, cause apparently there were people sleeping on the hallway floor, to the club house kitchen, craving for coffee.

She sat down just as Clay came in. "Hey, Ash. Glad you're up. Think we should have that little chat about why you're here now"

* * *

Translations:

С Днем Рождения, моя милая девушка- Happy birthday, my sweet girl.

Palju õnne, mu hull teine pool – Happy birthday, my crazy other half. Give me a call!


	8. Grain of truth

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

Clay showed her to the chapel. "First of all. Happy birthday, sweetheart!" Even though Ashley had hoped that no one here would address the fact that it happened to be her birthday, she felt glad hearing those words come out of his father's mouth. Also she really should have expected that. After all he had given her a call on this day every year, since their first actual conversation. Giving him a small smile she nodded slightly "Thanks, but please don't tell anyone else about that."

Ignoring the last part of her sentence he started "So… have a seat. As I told you on the phone, I can't trust anyone here anymore."

Ashley listened in silence.

"When John Teller died all those years ago… It wasn't exactly an accident. It needed to be done, he was weak. He was bringing us all down. Actually I think he himself was looking for a way out. So I arranged that way out for him," Clay said while avoiding her eyes.

He continued, "I will always protect this club, so I don't regret my decision. That's my job." After a small pause he went on, "Recently I had to protect SAMCRO again." He glanced at her for a second. "I ordered a hit on Jax's old lady. She did get hurt, but is okay now."

"You want me to take her out? Is that why I'm here?" Ashley demanded.

"No, the whole thing was a mistake. Gemma found out, and we had a fight, I lost my shit," Clay looked mortified. "She told Jax everything about John and Tara and now it's just a matter of time until he slams a bullet to my head. Others don't know any of it, and that's the thing. Jax has something up his sleeve, and I need to find out what it is, before it destroys us all."

"You brought me here to be a spy?"

"You're the only one who understands my actions, and you're the only one who can help me. Everything I have done has been for this club and our family, Jax is so lost in his blind rage that he doesn't see that." He turned to look into her eyes. "I need you to get close to him… and Gemma. Help me make this right."

"I don't see that happening. Me getting close to either one of them. I'm sure you can find a way to fix this yourself," she said getting up from the chair.

"Not without you. Please, Ashley," he pleaded.

She looked at the powerful man in front of her looking so weak. "Did you tell me everything? Cause if I find out you lied to me, or left anything out…"

"I promise, I will never lie to you," he cut her off.

"Alright, I will help you work this thing out with the them two, after all you are my only family. I love you dad, and I'll to anything for you," she surrendered.

"I love you too, sweetheart. By the way I think Gemma still doesn't know about your arrival, but I'm guessing Jax will give her a call as soon as he gets up."

"Great, let's get this family reunion rolling," she said with a constrained smile.

She needed to clear her head. That was so not what she had expected to hear. She didn't want to stay here, nor fake being a family with Jax and Gemma. But she trusted Clay, understood that sometimes things you did to protect your own were not Nobel Peace Prize worthy.

She rushed out of the house and soon found herself standing by her stupid bike, that hadn't moved since she had arrived here yesterday. "Stupid piece of shit, I'm gonna tear you to shreds and stuff the remains down that idiots throat that rented you to me," she muttered.

Ashley walked to the garage to find someone who had a better eye when it came to repairing Harleys. "Anyone in here?" she yelled out.

Happy stood up from where he was putting the inside of a black Ford together. Ashley halted as if she had seen a ghost. "Oh.. " After waiting few seconds for her to start talking he snapped at her, "What?"

Forcing a smile on her face she asked politely,"Is anyone else here?"

"Do you see anyone else, blondie?" he retorted.

"Well, a simple 'no' would have sufficed." She didn't want to ask for his help, even more so after that stupid dream, but she also didn't want to stay there and wait for Gemma or Jax to show up. "Can you take a look at my bike, I'll owe you one," Ash said swallowing her pride.

"You already owe me for my knife," he smirked.

She rolled her eyes "Is that a yes or a no?"

He moved closer to her "It's a maybe."


	9. It's not an issue

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

"You know what, never mind," Ash said rolling her eyes and turning around. "Thanks for nothing, smiley." She left the garage and started walking back to the club house. Her way there was cut short by Tig climbing down from his bike.

"Morning, beautiful," he practically yelled, giving her a wide smile.

"Yeah, I am, the morning on the other hand is so not beautiful," she said pouting her lips and looking at him with puppy dog eyes.

"Why, what's up?"

"That piece of shit bike-wannabe is dying there and I just need to get away from here, " Ash said pointing at the lonely Harley behind her. "Can you take a quick look, maybe spot the problem that's destroying my last nerves right now?" she asked.

"Sure thing, doll face, I can help you ease your nerves anytime by the way," Tig said with a dirty grin.

As Tig was searching for the flaw, apparently by walking half a mile around the bike, Ashley spotted Happy coming out of the garage. His torso was only covered by tattoos. That annoying bastard just had to look smoldering hot, didn't he. He reached for his jeans back pocket, pulled out a cigarette and sat down on a nearby table.

"Sorry, sugar, but this thing is as dead as the Mayan we just buried." Tig started. "I'd give you a ride, but Clay needs some of us for a thing."

After thinking for a moment and before Ash could even say something to protest, Tig called out to Hap, "Hey, Killer, can you give our pretty little guest here a ride downtown, I have that club thing." Not waiting for his answer he continued "And take the tow truck, so she can replace that useless Dyna with another half dead one."

Happy wanted to say no, but then again for some reason he almost felt bad for not helping her before, when she had asked. "Alright, I'll drop her off, but she'll have to find her own way back, I'm not some errand boy."

"Wait.. What, you're not gonna carry my shopping bags and me when my feet get tired?" she mocked him. "I thought that was the reason they were keeping you around, who does the shopping then, Mr. Not-an-errand-boy?"

Happy just glared at her. "You will find out why they keep me around, if you don't shut up and start moving."

"Oh, okay. But tell me, how exactly am I supposed to react? Drop my panties and drool or run for my life? I just guess those are the reactions you usually get," she said opening the truck door.

Drive to the rental place was quiet. Happy was busy trying not to reply to her last comment by saying that she should do both and Ashley was occupied with thinking about how exactly she was supposed to stay in this small town for an indefinite amount of time. With Jax, Gemma and… Happy.

"I can take it from here, thanks for the lift," Ashley said climbing out of the car.

Hap just ignored her. As they got inside the guy behind the desk quickly stood up. "Well, a cut definitely gets you attention," she mumbled to herself. "Hi, I rented that Harley from here yesterday, although I expected it to ride too, didn't know you can rent deadly wounded ones as well. So I'd like a refund or a replacement," she told the guy whose eyes glanced in intervals at Happy who was busy checking out some red and black bike on the window.

As he finally acknowledged her being there, the guy started, still spending more time on following Happy with his eyes than actually looking at her, "I'm sorry miss, we don't do refunds or replacements."

"First of all stop looking at him, it's me you should be afraid of. Second, what the hell do you mean, you don't do refunds." Ashley was more than furious. Her raised voice caught Happy's attention.

Next thing the funny looking guy behind the desk was face down on the floor, Ashley kneeling on top of him, yelling out something like "Do you do refunds now?" while bending his hand in an odd angle. The whole situation was just hilarious. At least for Happy.

The guy screamed in pain "Okay, okay, please stop."

"Okay, I'd like another bike, please," Ashley said with dashing smile after letting the poor guy get up.

"You have some serious kinds of anger issues, girly," Hap said trying not to laugh out loud.

"If it's good for my soul, or wallet for that matter, it is not an issue," she said giving him a small wink.

As they were exiting the building all hell broke loose.


	10. Guns blazing

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

Hey everyone, I'm probably taking a few days off from writing, that's why this chapter is a bit longer, but I'll be back real soon. AND thank you for all the reviews, follows and favorites !

* * *

Before they could even reach the front door, someone outside had opened fire. Happy pulled Ashley to the side and with that move they ended up face to face on the floor. "You're crushing me," Ashey whined trying to wiggle her way out from Happy's firm grasp.

"Your lucky knife trick probably won't help us right now, so stay put. I mean it!" Happy said releasing her. He knew for sure, that there was no way he could let that girl take a bullet while she was on his watch.

"Hey, where's the idiot that works here?" Ash spoke out. As Happy scanned the room it was empty, minus the two of them. Thinking back at the half an hour they had spent in that place he did remember that the nervous guy had looked more than afraid of him and while Ashley was dealing with the paperwork he had taken a call that ended with 'yes, right now'. Could he have really been giving someone intel about their whereabouts? Was he a Mayan snitch? If so then shit was about to go down. He flipped out his phone and called Clay. "We're under a hit at the bike rental, I'm guessing Mayans.. yeah she's in one piece… you think they know who she is… Oh yes I will."

"It's bad, they are all two hours away, but he'll try to find us some backup," Happy started.

"Really, you want to sit here on top of a fucking ticking timebomb and wait for backup?" Ashley said with questioning look.

"Can't exactly run out guns blazing. Brains before bullets, girl."

That made no sense to Ash. She had been in worse situations than this. Basing on the bullet sounds there were about ten guys outside. Yes, it would have been an uphill battle, but still not a mission impossible. Being sitting ducks was only bending odds in favor of their enemies. "Well you can stay here and wait, but I'm hoping you are not that stupid. Anyways I'm going," she finally decided. It was stupid to wait for someone Clay may or may not be able to send, neither were there any point in waiting for the cops to arrive, they would be long dead before that happened.

"Going where exactly? Get down," Happy growled at her. "It's not like they're going to let you dance your way out to the car or something."

"Who said I was going to take a car," she smiled looking at the black and red bike Hap had previously been eyeing.

"Fine, but you're so not going anywhere alone." They carefully made their way to the bike. Lucky for them it actually had fuel inside. Ash wanted to ride, but after suggesting that she got a look from Hap, that said that he would rather go out on foot than on the back of a bike steered by some chick.

"You do know we're going to exit through the side window, right," he said before breaking it with a gunshot. "So hold on tight." With that said they burst out on the street and firing at the bikers outside they got quite a good head start before they could hear the roar of the gang of Harleys coming after them.

Still they couldn't really drop the tail and there was no point in going back to the empty club house. Finally when they were out of sight for a few minutes Happy stopped the bike in front of a small house. Throwing her the keys he yelled, "Get inside, and stay there, I'll go get rid of them."

"But.. " Ash started, but Hap practically pushed her off the bike. "GO"

Ashley got inside. After seeing a whole lot of nothing she finally spotted a picture sitting on top of a small fireplace. It was a picture of Happy and some older women. "Wow, he doesn't even smile for pictures, what a waste of name," she thought looking at the photo.

Way too soon she heard a bike park in front of the house. No way Happy could have gotten rid of the tail that fast. She peaked outside and as she had feared, it was a guy wearing Mayan cut. "Fuck," she muttered pulling out her gun. She got behind a wall and waited.

Happy was driving as fast as that he could. Glancing behind he could still see the clan of bikes coming his way. But apparently dropping off Ash had been unnoticed. No way would they have still been after him, if they knew she was not on the back of his bike. Clay was pretty sure Mayans had figured out her family relations and thought she was an easy prey.

Ashley heard someone quietly open the door. Great, she still hadn't gotten on with the hype of locking doors. "Yeah, why make it hard for someone trying to kill you to enter the house," she wondered with irony. But before the guy could even see her standing there with a smug look, Ash pulled the trigger, hitting him to the stomach. For some reason she wasn't all that great at shooting. Knives, swords, even strangling and shooting arrows, all those things were like children's play to her, but guns she just wasn't that good at. Still she kicked his gun out of his hands before he could even raise it properly, and shot him for the second time. This time succeeding at hitting the mark she was aiming- his heart.

Ashley still didn't have a phone that really worked in the states so she started looking around for something that might be capable of communicating with the world. As Ash was going through a desk drawer, she heard someone trying to break through the front door she now had had the sense to lock. "Can't they just give it a rest," she muttered to herself, raising her gun.

The door flew open just as she took the shot, only to discover Happy falling down because of it.


	11. Where's the sunset?

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

Ashley watched in shock as Happy landed on the floor, blood oozing through his white SAMCRO t-shirt. She could hear and practically feel, how hard his head hit the concrete floor. "Oh god, HAPPY?" She screeched rushing to him only to realize that he was unconscious. "SHIT, I'm so so sorry," she apologized trying to lift his shirt to get a better view of the wound. Lucky for Hap, she had managed to seemingly miss major organs. At least she hoped so, as Ash quickly eyed the bullet hole in his right side, before pressing some of his shirt she had ripped off on it. "Wake up.. Please," she didn't even remember the last time she had been so sorry for hurting someone. "Where the hell is your phone?" she mumbled searching through his cut's pockets. Finally she reached it, only to find out, that it had no names to the numbers. No lists of incoming or outgoing calls, no text messages. Nothing. "I have no phone and now yours is some cryptic mind game? I swear if you don't wake up right now I'm going to take your Harley, leave you here and drive off to the sunset." This situation was just stupid, she had one dead and one unconscious and bleeding body and no way of getting help from the few people she knew in this town. It wasn't like she could go to some neighbors house and ask them to call the ambulance. How does one explain the circus that those two days had been to the police and come out of it without a murder charge. There were too many if's in that story to even hope for a self-defense excuse.

"It's a rainy day, there is no clear sunset to drive off to," Hap's raspy voice echoed through the nearly empty house. "I saw the Mayan bike in front of the house, so I barged in to save your sorry ass and you fucking pulled the trigger before even checking who you were up against. If it wasn't me laying here right now I'd even say you have balls, girl, then again it's also clear that you're really stupid." Ashley had never heard him ramble on like this, he must have really hit his head hard. Trying to suppress the laughter of relief she looked into his eyes "I'm really sorry, how are you feeling? I think the bullet ripped through without hitting anything important. Should still patch you up with a needle though. How's your head?" Without thinking Ashley reached out to touch his face. Seeing his eyebrows raise because of that movement, she quickly pulled her hand back. Looking away from his face, she started "Should get you a doctor, I do know how to sew a button back to a blouse, but not so certain in my ability of doing sutures."

"Don't have time for that," made Ashley return her gaze on him, as he continued, "those Mayan sons of a bitches might drive back this way and notice their friend's bike standing so proudly in front of my house". Ash peered out of the open door that Hap had broken down to get in. He was right. "You go steer it to the backyard and I'll make some calls," Happy said wincing from his sudden movement.

Ash did what he said and when she got back inside Hap was just ending a call. "Was that Clay?"

"Go get me some pain meds from the bathroom cabinet and bring the medical bag that's under the sink," he commanded.

"Not before you tell me who you we're just talking to."

"You do know that you've only caused problems for me, first you start off by destroying my stuff, then you waste my time and now after having to save your princess face from getting cut in half you almost killed me, I don't have to tell you anything," he said through gritted teeth.

"By the way that you're already up and yelling at me I could say you're going to be alright and I already apologized, so just put that gunshot on my tab and get on with your hateful life, honey," Ash snapped giving him a fake smile. "Now, was it Clay?" she asked again.

"Yes" Happy said with angry glare.

"And..?"

"He'll send someone to clean this place up, we should get to TM."

"See, wasn't that easy? Now I can go and fetch your stuff."

Ashley entered his bathroom, she wasn't sure why, but she kind of didn't expect it to look this clean and organized. She got the things he wanted and went back downstairs. "Let me see the wound, I'll try closing it up with something more medical than a ripped up shirt," Ash said kneeling down next to him.

As Happy draw the bloody cloth away she could see that it was still bleeding pretty bad. "You'll definitely need a real doctor," she looked at him.

"They'll get Tara there" he answered shortly.

"She's some crow eater?"

"She's your sister-in-law" Hap said nonchalantly.

"Oh, okay." Ashley didn't want to see neither her nor the kids Chucky had been babbling about. No point in creating short-lived relationships in this place.

"Can you take your cut and shirt off, I'll need to wrap this around you real tight," Ash asked looking at his tattoos.

"Didn't have to shoot me down to get my shirt off, should have just asked," he said with a sleepy look. Drugs must have been kicking in. He removed his clothing and Ashley found herself eyeing his chest. She wondered about the smiley-faces, it was clear they had a meaning, you might get one for fun, but there were dozen of them and Happy didn't seem like a guy to get a smiley-face tattoo just for fun.

As she was working on closing his wound, she could feel him watching her every move. His stare was distracting. All so often she found herself looking back at him and even though his eyelids were half way closed most of the time, he was always already looking at her.

"How are we going to get to TM?" Ash finally wondered while washing her hands.

Happy slowly stood up "I have a car in the garage".

"And I'm driving, by the look of it you're definitely only half way in this world right now," Ash said taking the keys from his hands. He just looked angry. What was it with him and the thought of women driving, was he afraid that his manliness would jump out of his body as soon as he lost his grip on the wheel? "Can you even walk straight?"

"Can you even sometimes shut up for a second?" he snapped back.

As they were making their way to the garage it was clear that her worry about his ability to simply walk was right on spot. How many pills had he taken? Finally she moved next to him and put a hand around his waist. He gave her a confused side glance but didn't protest. Actually it wasn't all that easy to steer a big stumbling guy. When they reached the car she lost her balance and ended up pinned between the car and Happy. He was so close to her and she just couldn't read the expression that was laid across his face. As he was starting to move his face even closer she couldn't even remember her own name. What was it? Andrea? Ana? All she could think of was the craziness of that moment and how much she wanted to erase that little distance that was separating them. She was frozen in place.

He stopped just an inch from his lips meeting hers and whispered "It's going to be your move."


	12. Civil war

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

'It's going to be your move' was ringing in her ears. Was he messing with her? Had all those flashes of hot and cold been his ploy to get into her pants? Well two could play that game.

A smile crossed her face, partly because she was actually really going to enjoy her next move and partly because she wanted to teach him a lesson. She was not some stupid bimbo who'd drop everything because of a guy, when he starts to show some interest. Yes, she was attracted to him, but she was nobody's fool, and if Hap wanted her, he needed to drop the badass act and say so.

"Good" Ash put a hand on his chest and slightly tilted her head sideways. As Happy stood still, waiting for her next move, she raised her hand to his cheek and gently crossed her lips with his. Right when Happy started to deepen the kiss, pressing up against her, and demanding access to her tongue, she pulled away. "That was my first and last move, can now cross it off my to-do list… Kiss a guy you don't like. Check!"

Those words seemed to have a sobering effect on Hap. He looked furious. Guess girls didn't usually turn him down. The signs of disbelief on his face were soon hidden away by the return of his famous smirk. "So you don't like me? Apparently you're as bad at lying as you are at shooting," he said turning away from her to climb into the passengers seat.

Neither of them said a word on their way back to Teller-Morrow.

As they entered the parking lot they were greeted by Jax, Juice and some dark haired women. Ashley shutting the car door behind her turned to Jax "He's pretty much out of it, don't know what pills he took, but he couldn't even walk straight, also I patched him up as good as I could, but he's bleeding bad and I'm pretty sure the bullet's still somewhere under his skin. But it's okay by me, if you leave the bullet inside and take that awful personality out instead, that way it would be beneficial for everyone"

"Tara will take care of him" Jax said giving her a small laugh and then pointing with his head at the mentioned women next to him. Tara's eyes were scanning her. Ashley decided to be civil so she held out her hand "Hi, I'm Ashley, nice to meet you". Tara smiled, shook her hand and then looked at Jax saying "You guys help Happy inside, I'll be right there".

Jax looked a bit confused about what Tara was up to, but let it slide. As Jax and Juice walked Happy inside, Tara turned to her "Are you okay?" That wasn't something Ashley had expected. "Oh yeah, those Mayans never really got to me.. I'm good"

"Great, but I meant that you had to kill someone and then shot Happy, I was thinking that you probably don't know that many people around here, so if you want to talk about it, I'm here."

Ashley didn't really feel like explaining that killing people was part of her day-job, as comfortable as Tara was with taking bullets out, she was with putting them in, so there was nothing that came across as being freaked out about things like that anymore. So she just returned her smile "Thanks, but I'm really okay". With a smile Tara left her standing there and went to follow Jax, Juice and Happy to the club house to put the wounded victim back together. Ashley didn't know what to make of that little conversation. Was she really worried about her mental health or was it her way of trying to pry into her thoughts. Ash might have been a bit paranoid, but there was no reason to blindly trust someone she just met.

She went inside and saw Tara working on Happy who was lying on the plastic covered pool table. He looked at her for a second with a serious face.

As Ashley wondered where Clay was she saw an older women enter the club house. She stopped mid-step when she noticed Ash. "Ashley" she practically whispered. By the look on her face and the way her eyes started to water up, Ash was pretty sure she was about to meet her mother.

Gemma moved closer to her but stopped to ask "Can I hug you?"

Swallowing back her resentment she reminded herself why she was here, what Clay had asked her to do. So she just nodded, not being able to say it out loud. Gemma gave her a strong hug and Ashley just stood still waiting for the moment to be over. A few tears and a hug wouldn't cover the fact that she had ignored her existence for all those years. But she also wasn't here to start a fight, so she sucked it all up.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart," Gemma said releasing her. Oh no, that sentence caught the attention of everyone around them.

"We're going to have a birthday bash? Awesome, glad you were born on this day, doll" Tig shouted.

"Aye, happy birthday, lass," the Scotsman named Chibs joined in.

Ashley looked at Gemma "I don't want to talk about our past, is that clear?"

That was the only way she could play nice with them. No mentioning the fact that 'family' here, other than Clay, had never reached out to her or why they hadn't, or else she would probably lose her self-control.

"Yeah okay, as long as you're not ready to talk about that, but when you are.."

"I'm tired and in need of a hot shower," Ash cut her off.

"Okay, we're going to start with the party preparations" Gemma gave her a shy smile.

"No need for that, where's Clay?" Ashley asked.

"He's still dealing with retaliation for todays attack on you and Hap."

"I see," she said more to herself and started moving towards her room.

Just as she was ready to hop into the shower there was a knock on her door. "I'm coming" she yelled out and wrapped a towel around her. When she opened the door she found Juice standing there. As much as he tried, he couldn't really avoid checking her out before saying "Clay asked me to give you this. He held out a box.

"What is it?" Ash wondered with raised eyebrows.

"It's your new phone. I took the liberty of adding some numbers in there" Juice said with a sincere smile. Ash took the box, then looked him in the eyes "Thanks, Juice".

"My pleasure" he said quickly dropping his gaze once again on her barely covered body.

Closing the door Ash had to smother a small laughter, Juice looked like a sweet little lost puppy dog, but he was also quite handsome and maybe even useful to her someday.

Happy was now lying on the coach, Tara had just finished sewing him together and another round of pain meds, now laced with whiskey topping, was starting to kick in. Closing his eyes he thought about Ashley. That short lived kiss hadn't been enough, he wanted more, a whole lot more from her. But then again she was giving him a serious headache, there was just no way of predicting her next move, but one thing was sure, whatever it was, it was going to make him angry. That he knew. What the hell was he even doing pining over some piece of ass, even if it was a nice piece. That was sure simply by looking at her in those shorts she was wearing. But still, it was not worth it, if that beautiful body came with a mind that was stubborn and short-fused. He just needed to get off with some crow eater and forget that he even thought about her that way.

Happy sat up and looked around, there was a black haired girl talking to a blonde by the bar. As the black haired one, whose name was Sara.. Sandra, well it was something that started with 'S', looked his way he waved her over, not even bothering to smile. She sat down next to him smiling, "Hi, Happy".

"Just keep your mouth shut," he replied sliding his hand up and down her thigh.

As Ashley returned to the lounge area her eyes spotted Happy with some skank right away. That sight made her snort out loud. Well, if he wanted to play it that way, fine by her. She moved to sit next to Tig and Chibs.

"Can you teach me how to shoot, I tend to miss the mark I aim," Ash started, "and the next time I fire at Happy, and by the way that he is always annoying me it's bound to happen, I think I should finish the job right, otherwise there's just no way of saving my reputation."

Chibs laughed.

"For you, beautiful, anything," Tig grinned "and can I get a birthday kiss?"

"Birthday kiss? Shouldn't the birthday girl get those, not her quests?" Ash looked at Tig, squinting her eyes.

"Well yeah, and you will, it's my gift to you, how many would you like?" Tig said putting his arm around her shoulder.

" Let's start with one on the cheek, after all I'm a good girl… and I'll be right back," Ash rose up spotting Jax come in. She needed to speak with him. When he had first tried to talk to her, she wanted nothing to do with him, but now that she was on a 'bonding mission', she needed to ease up on him.

"Jax, can I have a minute?" she caught up with him.

"Yeah, sure."

"So I wanted to say I'm sorry about yesterday, I just don't want to talk about our history, I'd like to move on from where we are now," she rambled.

"If that's true, then alright, but I kind of have a feeling you're not telling me everything," Jax said with suspicion.

"There's nothing more to tell," Ash replied with poker face.

"Good," Jax gave her a slight smile.

As Ash made her way back to where Tig was emptying a bottle of Jack, she had to wonder why it had been so easy, Jax and everything.. He obviously couldn't really just trust her, he knew she was on Clay's side and he was by definition not. It was almost like he knew something she didn't.

In the meantime party was already picking up when Clay arrived. Ashley watched as he headed straight to Happy, who pushed the girl giving him a lap dance away. They had a short conversation and then Clay moved to the chapel door, waving her over.

"Come in. I think there's not much time. Something is going down, Mayan president was killed and it was not my call," Clay slammed his fist to the table. "The destination we believed him to be at turned out to be bogus, and Jax never showed up, I was planning on working things out with Alvarez without an actual war, but now all eyes are looking at SAMCRO."

"Oh shit, you think Jax had something to do with it?" Ash asked looking at his half-brother through the window.

"Might have, but that's not the big issue right now, he's been trying to undermine me for a long time, I'll handle him. The big picture is that were about to have Charmings very own civil war."

"Whatever it is, I'll be on your side," Ash put her hand on top of his.

"I'm so glad you're here, honey, I need .. " Clay's words were shushed out by the noise of police raid. Chapels' door burst open and a black sheriff walked in, "Clarence Morrow, you're under arrest for the murder of Marcus Alvarez".


	13. Enraged

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me" Clay shouted in outrage "I want my lawyer".

Ash watched in shock as the guys in blue uniforms cuffed his father, horror coming over her as she remembered the conversation they were having only minutes ago. Clay had said it wasn't his call and he had no reason to lie to her. Therefore there was only one other explanation. He must have been set up and considering the reason she was here in the first place, she had a pretty good idea, who was behind that stupid move… The vengeful prince of Charming.

As Clay was being dragged away, Ashley started to move towards him, only to be stopped by the sheriff. Pushing his hands away she looked at Clay "I will make this right. I promise."

She followed them out of the chapel. Looking around she could see the reactions everyone were having. Most of them looked startled, some clearly angered. Jax's face gave out no emotions, he looked just dead serious.

Just as the police had cleared out with Clay, Ash lunged at Jax. Not holding anything back she jabbed him right to his face. Partly cause he wasn't expecting it and partly because she really did know how to hit like a boxing champion, he almost fell down. She was ready to strike again, when she felt a set of hands grabbing her from behind and pulling her away from Jax. As she was being escorted out by someone, she could hear Jax yelling "What the hell, you crazy bitch".

"LET GO OF ME, or I swear to god I'll chop you up in pieces," she fought with whoever was ushering her forward, when they were already outside.

"I will when you stop acting like a lunatic" came from a all too familiar raspy voice.

"That little shithead in there set Clay up and he's going to pay for that, mark my words."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Happy frowned.

"Ahh, I ain't talking about anything with you," Ash said catching him by surprise and grabbing Hap's keys from his pocket.

"Oh no you won't," Hap muttered in anger before realizing, that she really was going to take his bike. By that time she was already on his Harley and before he could get to her, she had made her way out the gates. "Shit!" Who the hell did she think she was dealing with, no one touched his bike without permission.

On his way in Hap smashed a beer bottle that was standing on the ground to the club house wall. First SAMCRO's president was arrested and now Clay's insane daughter had taken his bike for a joy-ride. Angry was a polite way of describing his current feelings.

Inside was a madhouse, everyone buzzing around like chickens without heads. "Hap, church in five" Tig patted him on his back, catching a glimpse of Hap's face he added "Did she smack you too?"

"That bitch stole my bike," he growled.

"Really? What, how?"

"Doesn't matter, if she's not back with it soon, I don't care, whose daughter she is, I'll put her in a box and send her crazy ass back home" Hap said pushing past Tig.

"Did Hap leave Ashley outside?" Gemma stepped up to Tig.

"Apparently she's just as stubborn as her mother" Tig said with a wary smile, "she took his bike".

"What?" Gemma looked frightened.

"Don't worry, we'll find her, and as you just saw she ain't afraid of standing up for herself. Also I'm guessing the Mayans are licking their wounds and planning something bigger right now, don't think that they're out there trying to off us yet," Tig assured her.

"Tig, you coming? " Chibs asked standing on the chapel door.

"Oh yeah."

As everyone had taken their seat, Jax moved to stand behind Clay's chair. "I'm guessing VP is in charge for now."

"So what do we know?" Chibs spoke out.

"Where were you anyways, when we were looking for Alvarez?" Tig looked at Jax.

"On my way there I got held up by the ATF, they had some questions about our foreign guest and the shooting that took place at the bike rental."

"I just got a call from Lowen, apparently they found Clay's gun at the crime scene," Juice said entering the chapel.

"I'd say there's not much about Clay we can do right now, let the lawyers handle it. But that kill being pinned at SAMCRO will bring a warzone to the streets of Charming," Jax started, "we need to reach out to Mayans before they reach out to us, guns aimed at our heads".

"I'll start making calls," Juice said.

Turning to Happy Jax asked "Where's the little she-devil?"

"She took off with his bike," Tig burst out trying to hide his smile.

"I'm actually not surprised. I had Juice do some research on her, turns out she has direct ties to Russian mob and I'm guessing only Clay knew about that," Jax said, "explains her courage and skills, but still we can't let her out of our sight, she's already on Mayans hit list and as she seems to be working her own agenda here, she's a threat to us as well."

"Me, Hap and Juice will go out looking for her" Tig said, looking at Hap he added, "you want to ride bitch with me or Juice?"

As Bobby held Happy back from lunging at Tig, Tig started laughing "sorry, Killer, it's just a low hanging fruit, we don't get that many opportunities to see someone turning tricks like that on you."

"Hap, you can take one of prospects bikes" Bobby said letting go of him.

"She thinks it was you, who pinned that murder on Clay," Hap said looking at Jax.

"I had a feeling that might have been the case before, did she say where she was going?" Jax asked lighting a cigarette.

Happy shook his head.

"Well, you guys go find her, I'll deal with her issues with me later," Jax said slamming the gavel down.


	14. The hunt

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

**4 hours earlier**

Jax was running late, he was supposed to meet others at the farmhouse they believed Alvarez to be at. But the thing with Happy had taken up more time than expected and he needed to drop Tara home. During those crazy times he just didn't trust anyone else for that job. As he was starting to hit the road again, his driveway was blocked by two black SUVs. "What now?" he rolled his eyes.

"Hello, Jackson," came from the black haired older guy climbing out from one of the SUVs. He had a thick and unmistakable Russian accent. Jax hushed his bike and stood up. "And you are?"

"I'm a friend of a friend. Well actually a friend of your sister," the dangerous looking guy said with a smile.

"And I'm guessing you're not here to meet and greet, so what's the deal exactly," Jax squinted his eyes.

"Well, maybe we should go inside for a second," the guy suggested, "I'm Maxim by the way".

"No we shouldn't," Jax looked at the company Maxim had, "I need to be somewhere".

"Oh, I am sorry, maybe my English isn't that good, I wasn't asking," Maxim stepped closer to him, with the same creepy smile still looming over his face, and the guys behind him holding their hands inside their jackets watching Jax's every move.

"Well if you put it this way, then come on in," Jax said returning the fake smile, realizing clearly how insistent the Russian was with his armed followers. As they moved inside, Jax turned around "So what is it?"

"I did some research on you and your stepfather, as I understand there's some bad blood between the two of you."

"What's it to you?" Jax questioned not understanding where he was going with all of this.

"I need Ashley on my side, not here trying to resurrect some father-daughter relationship. And you want him gone as well, as he did kill your father and all. So I thought you might be interested in collaborating."

Jax raised his eyebrows "Collaborating?"

"We'll take him out, but I need you to guarantee me, that you or your mother won't try keeping her in the States anyways."

"I'm not interested in your generous offer, whoever you are," Jax snorted, "you should leave while you can, friend of my sister."

"Sorry to hear that, Jackson. Hope you can handle the aftermaths of your decision," Maxim said walking out the door.

**Present **

Jax rubbed his eyes. The day was just spiraling out of control. On the one hand he was clad Clay was locked up, then again it was not what he had planned for him. Clay needed to pay, but not like this. After the visit he had had earlier and the background check Juice had done for Ashley, it was all way too obvious, who was behind Clay's set up. He had to give it up to the Russians though, they found a way to eliminate Clay and punish Jax, and SAMCRO for that matter, for not co-operating. They knew what kind of heat that kill would bring to the club. Jax knew that he should have told his brothers about Russians, but they might have started wondering, why Russians even thought he could agree to their plan and it was not the right time to come clean about Clay. Jax needed to find proof first.

Happy, Tig and Juice were walking towards their bikes. Well Happy was so furious about having to ride some prospects bike, that his walking was more like angry stomping with the intention of killing everything underneath his feet.

"We should fan out, and hey Hap, please don't kill her, when you stumble across your bike being bent out around a tree or something," Tig said half-jokingly. He could actually picture the exact scene happening in his head.

"Hap, maybe you shouldn't come along at all," Juice butted in with a goofy smile.

The look they got from Happy shut them both up.

Happy decided to check out the motel she had stayed in first, but there was no sign of neither her nor his bike. Standing next to his borrowed bike and smoking a cigarette, he tried to think of a place she might have gone to. It wasn't exactly like she knew her way around here, and those few places she had been to, at least that he knew of, like the bike rental and the club house, were probably not on her mind. So where was she? Happy thought about his own house, she'd been there too, but why would she possibly be there right now, unless she was waiting for him, lying on his bed, naked. Happy snorted at his own thought, this was definitely not the case.

Suddenly it cleared to him, Ash might have gone to the police station to ask around about Clay, at least it would have been his move in that situation. As he was getting near to the police station, Hap saw her riding in the opposite direction, blonde hair flying all around her head. Not wanting to lose her, Hap sped up. By the way that she added speed to her bike it was clear, that she was aware of him following her. They were a few miles out of Charming, when she finally pulled over in front of a house surrounded by crime scene tape.

"Glad you could join me. Can we exchange bikes, yours is almost out of fuel," Ash began walking towards the front door.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded.

"Trying to give you a good look at my behind," turning around she continued, "or maybe I'm trying to get inside that house, your pick."

As Happy caught up with her, he stopped Ashley by picking her up from behind. "I basically promised I wouldn't kill you, but you are really dancing on my last nerves, blondie," Hap said, the threat in his voice bringing shivers to Ash's skin.

"Put me down, you idiot," she shouted kicking around. "Where the hell are you even carrying me?"

Happy finally let her down. Backing her against a tree Ashley could see his black eyes on fire. "You will never touch my stuff again, or I swear to god that will be your last move," he spoke before Ashley could even open her mouth.

"And you will not go inside that house, you will come with me back to TM," he continued.

"I'd like to see you try arranging that," she quickly responded looking deep in his eyes.

The sound of motorcycles turned both of their heads. "Mayans?" Ash's voice came out in a whisper.

Pulling her out of sight and behind a tree he nodded, "Definitely not sons."

"Will we make it to the bikes?" Ash asked looking at the gang of bikes coming their way.

"No," he shook his head, "we need to get out of here." With that he grabbed her hand and started pulling her deeper into the woods. After running for a few minutes Happy paused to draw out his phone. "Dammit, no signal," he mutter through gritted teeth.

"It's getting dark," Ash pointed out, zipping up her leather jacket.

Staring intently at her he nodded. "We should keep on moving. They will be looking for us."

It was getting really dark, they had been walking for what felt like half an hour. "I can barely see you, could you perhaps sing something, so I could follow your voice or something," Ashley said teasingly.

"I'm not going to carry you again, if that's what you're hoping for," Hap responded in a low voice.

Ashley laughed, "Yeah, that was exactly my idea. You can see right through me, hon."

"Do you see that?" Happy suddenly stopped.

"See what?" Ash pumped into him.

"There something ahead, a house or a shed or something," he waved.

"Well get going then."

As they reached the lonely small house in the middle of woods, Ash felt relief coming over her. Not that she would have ever told him, but walking around in a forest at night was really freaking her out. Soon, if it had gotten even darker, she probably would have begged him to hold her hand. Simply the thought of that made her wince.

Happy peaked through the window. "It seems to be empty."

"Good," she kicked the old door open.

Happy slightly barricaded the doorway, while Ashley looked around for anything that could be useful. The only handy thing she found was a bottle of scotch. "Well at least it won't be cold here," she said holding the bottle up high.

Happy tried his phone. Still nothing. "There's no service here too, but I guess we should wait for the sunrise before moving on," he started, "the house seems to be way off the grid, I don't think the Mayans would stumble on it very easily."

Pulling out two classes, Ash sat down on the coach. "Cheers," she pushed a class of whiskey his way.

An hour passed and the bottle was almost empty. During that hour they barely said a word. Suddenly Ashley stood up, "Is it tomorrow already?"

"Yeah, almost 2AM."

"It's not my birthday anymore," Ash sat down with a smile on her face.

Hap just raised his eyebrow. He himself wasn't that big of a fan of birthdays, but she just looked way too seriously happy about its passing. Wanting to ask about it, he turned to her, but was instantly distracted by a leaf sticking out from her hair.

"What so funny?" Ash demanded.

"I don't know, you tell me, forest goddess," he couldn't stop laughing.

"What?!" she rose.

Happy stood up as well, "Stay still, I'll remove your accessory."

The scared look on her face made Happy laugh even more. "Relax, it's just a leaf."

"Oh, you asshole, I thought I had something living on top of my head."

With a grin Happy started pulling the leaf out. Her blonde curly hair was exceptionally soft under his hands. And standing so close to her she smelled like paradise laced with heaven. He lost himself looking at her lips. They were full and gorgeous and he already knew how good they felt against his. Without thinking he pulled her face closer and pressed a kiss on her beautiful mouth. Surprisingly she didn't protest or pull away. Instead she put her arms around him and opened her mouth, letting their tongues meet for the first time. Not being able to wait any longer he picked her up and moved towards the coach.

That's when he heard the roar of a bike. It was close.

"Shit, someone's about to join us," he said pushing himself up and leaving Ashley breathing heavily on the coach.

"We either go out the back and hide, or we take him out, and that way get a ride," Ash said avoiding his eyes.


	15. Turn of events

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

"Your choice," Happy said in a calm voice.

Ashley stared in disbelief as Happy moved to peer out the window. "Really? When did you and your control freak of a personality split ways?"

"So what's it gonna be?" he asked again, his voice serious.

"I'd say those boots were not made for running around in a fucking forest, but they are perfect for kicking ass," she said, her expression amused.

He seemed to deliberate for a moment. "Got your gun?" Happy asked looking at her over his shoulder.

"Gun, knife, tazor, iron fists.. you name it," she said with a devilish smile.

That was the exact thing he liked about her. She was the opposite of needy. Happy had to hide the smile that was creeping up on him. "You think you can aim this time? Don't feel like getting another hole in my body today," he teased not looking at her.

"What was it? Want me to practice if I can hit the target this time," Ashley clicked the safety off.

Turning around to face her, Hap had a gun pointed at him. "Hilarious," he practically growled.

"Get behind the sofa, I'll be on the other side of the door," he gave her a small push.

She mumbled something he couldn't hear. The bike had stopped in front of the house. Whoever it was, it was flying solo. Happy waved at her to get lower, Ashley fighting the urge to flip him the bird, just shook her head. She wasn't hiding, she was aiming and being face down on the ground was no way of doing that.

They waited in complete silence. Slowly the doorknob started turning. Due to the fact that they had blocked the doorway previously, it wasn't much of a use. So the person behind it started breaking it down with force. Once he got in Ashley was ready to fire, only to be stopped by Happy yelling out "Don't."

"Bellhop?" Happy turned to the guy who had just barged in. They guy whose name seemed to be Bellhop looked at Happy grinning, "Oh, hey bro. Whatcha doing in my cabin?"

"This is yours?" Happy asked, confused.

"Well yeah. Want to lower your gun there, sweetheart?" Bellhop stared at Ashley, his smile getting bigger.

"You know him?" Ashley wondered suspiciously.

"Yes," Happy answered, lowering his gun and sliding his eyes to Ashley, who was now moving closer to them.

Happy was too busy with wondering about the turn of events, last he'd seen Bellhop was about ten years ago in Tacoma, that he hadn't drawn any attention to the cut Bellhop was wearing. As Bellhop noticed Happy's eyes stopping to read his patches, he used the moment to kick Happy's gun out of his hand, while at the same time blowing out a loud whistle. With that four more guys barged in. Ashley aimed his gun at Bellhop, but he just laughed at her, "Oh please, baby."

"You shithead, you patched in with Mayans? When?" Happy snapped in anger, as the other guys tied a rope around his hands and feet. He spat at Bell. The gesture was responded with a blow to Hap's face.

"Oh that was a long time ago, and as I heard you transferred here… Well I thought I'd pay you a visit, and guess what, it turns out you stupid motherfuckers thought you could attack us without consequences," Bell started. "And what do we have here?" he wondered walking around tied up Ashley. "So Clay's little princess has returned home… Well, well he did do a good job hiding you all those years, darling."

"I'd do a good job hiding your dead body, wanna see?" Ash interrupted his rambling.

"Oh, and she has a mouth on her, well look at that," Bell laughed walking behind the chair she was tied to. He bent down to whisper in her ear, "what else can you do with that mouth?"

"Yeah, please let me show you. Which part of your body would you like me to tear to pieces first?" she answered looking up at him.

"Sweetie, I can see right now, that we're going to have a good time with you," Bell snickered, stroking his hand across her cheek. Ashley tried to get away from the blonde guys reach, unsuccessfully.

Bellhop turned back to Happy "she yours?"

"No," Hap glanced at Ashley before answering.

"So you don't mind at all, if I give her a good ride?" Bell moved closer to Happy, his evil grin getting bigger.

"Not really," Hap's face was stone cold.

His response brought out another round of laughter. "That is just wonderful."

"Oh hey, when did you get this reckless with hiding your tracks? Finding you here was all too easy."

Happy just glared at him, trying to figure out a way to get to the knife he had in his booth.

Ashley was more than shocked. Had Happy really just basically given consent to her being passed around? Not that it was going to happen, she always found her way out of shitty situations like this, but still Happy was as dead to her as the guys they were surrounded with.

"And I don't mind if you give him a good ride," Ashley spoke up staring at Happy.

"Oh ouch, but sorry babe, he's not exactly my cup of tea, but I promise you, I'll find other ways to entertain him," Bell said, his eyes wickedly amused. "Hap, Hap.. That's a good Old Lady material here, sorry you won't get the chance to snatch her up. Well, then again you probably still too pussy to do that anyways. But still I sense sexual tension in the air, you sure you won't mind me getting on top of that fine piece of ass?"

Happy felt like a bull seeing a red flag. There might have even been smoke coming out of his nose and ears.

Bell enjoyed the look on Happy's face. There had been a time when he'd done anything for the guy. But that time was so deep in the past. He moved over to Ashley. The girl had everything a straight guy would find appealing and the simple fact, that he didn't believe Happy's bullshit about he not caring about her, made her simply irresistible. Holding on to her face he forced his mouth on hers.

"You stupid bitch," Bell shouted, his lip bleeding.

Happy was seeing black, he was so going to kill that little bastard.

"Well if you want to move thing on faster, then fine by me, we'll continue in some place more comfortable… well more comfortable for me," the same creepy smile was back on Bell's face. He turned to his guys "Go get your bikes and the car, I can handle these two."


	16. Right on cue

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

As ordered, Bell's guys left the cabin. Bellhop spat out the blood that was filling his mouth and stood next to Ashley. "Don't really want to mess your pretty face up before I'm done with you, but after…" he paused to theatrically pretend to think, "well you could say I'm all about equality, so I won't be all bent out about not wanting to hit a lady."

"Now where were we? Stand up so I can take a better look of what you're offering," Bell ordered.

Ashley ignored him and shot an angry side glance at Happy. He looked like he was about explode. What was his problem, he himself had just a few minutes ago declared that he was okay with whatever that asshole wanted to do to her. Counting all the assholes in the room… well there were definitely more than one.

"Oh sorry, honey, I now see you can't. Well, I'll tie your feet loose, but if you try running, I'm going to have to take back that little promise about not messing up your face right away," he smiled at Ashley, kneeling down.

Although leaving Happy behind was an enticing idea, running away was not her style. Bell cut her feet loose and pulled her up. He was not that much taller than her. As he started tracing his finger across her cleavage, she kicked him in the groin. Bell bent down in pain and Ash took it as an offering of his face as the next target for her knee. He fell down on his back, yelling, "You stupid bitch."

Ashley gave another kick to his manhood before storming to the table, that was holding her previously removed knife. Quickly, after cutting her own hands loose, she moved behind Happy's chair and laid her knife in his tied up hands. By that time Bell had gotten up and was already furiously making his way to her, "You're so dead, slut."

Ashley was in front of him before he could point his gun at her. As she was trying to get the gun out of his hand, it went off. Ashley used the fracture of a second, when Bell was looking towards Happy, and moved behind him, bending his gun holding hand up high. He let go of his gun and it fell to the ground. Releasing his hand, Ash took his neck in a headlock. Using all her strength to strangle him, she had the chance to look at Happy, he had gotten his hands free, but was still tied to the chair. He appeared to be in one piece. Bellhop tried to get rid of her, by slamming Ashley to the wall. It was no use and he was about to run out of air.

That was when the others stormed in. The last thing Ashley saw, before blacking out, was a hand with a gun flying her way.

When Ashley finally came to consciousness, she was tied up again. Looking around she noticed Happy sitting across from her and by the feel of it, they were in a moving van. "Shit," she muttered, catching Hap's attention. The look on his face was the opposite of happy, but there was something else. He looked relieved.

"Nice moves back there," he said looking at the small lamp on the ceiling, their only source of light.

Ashley burst out laughing. Of course Happy would comment on something like that, in a situation that crazy, with a straight face. "If yours would have been faster, well maybe we'd be sitting in the driver's seat, not back here."

Without saying anything, he's eyes slid back to her. Turning her head, to scan their surroundings, she felt sharp pain, which made her wince.

"Well things could be worse," Ash started, "if those idiots hadn't ruined our little party, we'd be making a huge mistake right now."

"Well thing could be better, if you had stayed wherever that is, that you came from," he said, his low voice cold.

"I actually agree. That's a first, we should mark it down as a national holiday," she answered gazing at him. His face was bloodier, than it had been inside the cabin, making Ashley wonder, what had happend during the time she had been in the dreamland. One thing was sure, they were both masters of saying things thad made other people lose their shit.

Ashley slowly made her way to the other side. Roaming around in a moving car was not exactly fun, even more so when you were tied up. Being side by side with Hap, she finally had the chance to do the thing that was clouding her judgement. The fact, that her hands were tied in front of her this time, made it all that much easier. Positioning herself as close as she could to the now clearly confused Happy, she slammed her elbow to his stomach.

"What the fuck?"

"That was for saying that it is okay with you, if that asshole has his way with me," Ash stated, staring at his outraged face.

"Had I reacted any other way, that fucker would have taken you then and there, making me watch the whole thing," he didn't even try hiding his irritation.

"Whatever," Ash moved further away from him, not believing his explanation.

"Did you see, how many of them got in this car?" she suddenly turned to him.

"Two," he eyed her.

"I think I have an idea," she said with a wicked grin.


	17. Vengeance

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

"Well? Spill it," Hap furrowed his brows.

"I need you to look away for a second," she stated moving her tied up hands to the hem of her shirt.

Confusion in his face grew even bigger, "I'm not so sure if your stripping would literally sweep them of their feet."

"I'm not stripping, you asshole, that's the whole reason I wanted you to direct your gaze somewhere else," Ash sighed. "The thing is, long story short, I just remembered, that I'm wearing a bra, which has some improvements attached to it. It's not exactly the first time I've been in this kind of a situation and well somewhere along the way I figured out, that people generally are just too stupid to suspect pretty things to be dangerous."

Happy still didn't see where she was going with this, "You have a bra, that dazzles them blind or something?"

"I have this small pendant looking thing hanging from it and if you know, how to turn it around correctly, the sharp blades that are inside, come out. Meaning we can cut ourselves loose."

"So now, would you please try what it's like to be a gentleman?" she eyed him.

"Get on with it, we might not have that much time left for your entertainment show," Hap said ignoring her request.

"Fuck you," Ash turned herself around and started raising her shirt up. In order to detach the pendant she needed to push its sides down and pull. But the stupid way her hands were tied together, made it impossible for her to bend her fingers enough to grab a good hold of the pendant.

"Shit, I can't reach it," she muttered through gritted teeth.

"Let me try," Happy said wanting her to turn around.

Ashley looked at him over her shoulder, "Your hands are tied behind your back, how's that going to help?"

"I'll use my mouth or something," he suggested.

"Ahh, fine," Ash surrendered and moved towards him. "How exactly should I … oh well," she threw her knee over his legs, as much as the rope keeping her ankles together allowed. "Get that smirk of your face, or I'll do it for you," she looked at his eyes, that were hovering over her breasts.

"Move closer," Hap commanded, before diving down. He had to turn his head sideways to really get both sides of the pendant pushed down with his teeth. Although they probably didn't have that much time left, he just had to linger a bit longer than needed. Thoughts that were going around in Happy's head about the situation he was in, made it hard to concentrate. Emphasis on the word 'hard'. The way she slightly tried to create distance between their bodies, made him think, that she might have also noticed the way his body was reacting to hers.

He pulled the pendant free and held it between his teeth. Ashley not moving away from his lap, took it and started working her hands free. All too soon she was done with hers. Ashley had been too busy with working on cutting the ties, that she had totally forgotten to pull down her shirt and Happy liked the close view too much to say a word about it. When she finally looked his way and caught the sight of where his eyes were resting, she quickly with a huff adjusted herself, before moving on to Happy's hands.

As they were both free, Ashley clipped the pendent back in saying, "I should patent it."

"So how are we going to play this?" Ash spoke out again, looking around for something that could be used as a weapon.

"I'd say, we get their attention and then get their insides out," Hap's raspy voice was full of vengeance.

They started banging their hands against the wall separating them from the Mayans driving the van. Apparently Mexican friends steering the wheel were as short fused, as they. The car came to a sudden halt. When the doors were opened from the outside Happy and Ashley were already ready to launch an attack. Considering the skills and experiences those two had, it wasn't all too hard to bounce the first Mayans head to the door a few times too many. The other guy put up a mildly mightier fight, but in the end he was also lucky enough, to with the help of Happy get closely acquainted with the asphalt.

"Should we take them along, I hear Tig's dog likes Mexican food?" Ash asked pushing the unconscious guy with her shoe.

"No," Happy crouched and grabbed the other guy's head. Slapping it with his other hand, the dude finally opened his eyes. "You'll go tell that motherfucker, that I'm coming for him," he growled to him.

"Princess, go get in," Hap didn't look at Ashley. He was watching the second guy. Without hesitation he moved to the Mayan and took the knife from his belt. With a fast move he slammed it to his neck.

Ashley had no idea, where exactly he was driving her, until she spotted the familiar house. They were back at the crime scene. "You want a replay?" she looked at him suspiciously.

"I want my bike," he shot her a death glare.

"And you think they left it there, maybe even polished it?" she snorted, as Happy steered the wheel to get off the main road.

Surprisingly both bikes were seemingly untouched. "Well consider me in lack of words, why the hell didn't they.. I don't know drag these to a lake or something.. Maybe there's a bomb?" Ashley rambled as Happy moved to his bike.

"You love that piece of metal more than you love people, right?" she sat her ass down on the prospects bike.

"I love nothing," Happy looked over his shoulder for a second.

"Well okay then, good for you," she rolled her eyes. Ashley was just throwing her leg over the bike, when she felt an arm pull her back.

"You're coming with me," Happy said in a low voice.

"Alright, fine… but only cause I'm seriously too tired to argue with you right now," Ash agreed, following Hap to his bike.

She was not lying about being tired. It had been a crazy long night. Riding towards Charming Ashley had to force herself not to fall asleep. She also fought herself not to lay her head on Happy's shoulder, but that war was soon lost. It just felt too good. She enjoyed the beautiful sunrise that was looming in the distance and the almost too cool wind giving her the chills. She also enjoyed the feel of Happy underneath her hands, even through his shirt she could feel his abs of steel. When they finally stopped, it was not the destination Ash had thought they were aiming at.

"Why are we here exactly? Couldn't you give me a lift before getting yourself home?" Ash sat still, watching Happy get off of his Harley.

"You're staying here," Happy said firmly.


	18. Light of the morning

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

Happy simply walked towards the front door, leaving Ashley sitting there on his bike with an open mouth.

"Really?" she muttered with annoyance, watching the door close behind him. He had taken the keys, so it was either walking back to TM, or following Happy inside. "That little douchebag," Ash mumbled to herself, as she lifted her foot over the bike. Standing there for a second and weighing her options, she gave up, mainly due to her lack of energy to make more than five steps in a row, without passing out on the pavement.

When she finally got inside, memories from last time she had been there, came rushing back. She'd almost killed Hap and the feeling that came with that unfortunate shot, was something she rarely felt these days- regret. With the job she had, feeling regret was a straight path to getting yourself killed. In her life, there was just no room for doubts and what-ifs. Actually there was not that much of a room for any feelings, whatsoever. But since she had arrived in Charming, all kinds of emotions were starting to fight with the walls she had spent years building up. Happy had said to her, that he didn't love anything. Well, she didn't know if she had ever in her life really loved anything… It was one thing to say 'I love you', a whole another to actually feel what she was saying and she was not so certain that feeling had yet showed itself to her.

Happy appeared from the other room carrying two bottles in his hands. Holding one of them out to Ashley, he ordered, "Drink."

She took the beer he was offering, without saying anything. After taking a sip, she finally opened her mouth to say, "I don't know what is going around in your head, but if you think I'm here to sleep with you, you're wrong."

"You're going to sleep next to me, until I can be sure, that you're safely back at TM, and whatever happens to you from then on, is not my responsibility," the look in his eyes was cold, when he said it.

"Have you been blindfolded the whole time? I am not exactly in the need of a savior, pretty sure I'll survive, even without you barking orders next to me," she snapped back, taking a step forward and crossing her arms.

A devilish smile crossed his face. "Even if your mouth says otherwise, your body seems to want to be next to me," he said, making Ashley take back the step she had made his way.

"I'll get you something to sleep in," Hap said, leaving her standing there in pure rage. Walking up the stairs he added, "And don't worry, my bed is big enough for you to sleep comfortably, without even touching me."

It was just a few hours more with him, she thought to herself, trying to calm down. She followed him upstairs. Standing in his bedroom doorway, Ashley eyed it suspiciously. He hadn't been lying, the bed was ridiculously huge. You could have fit his bike in there with them, and half of it would still be empty.

"It's clean," he handed her a big navy blue SAMCRO t-shirt.

Taking it from him, she moved to the bathroom. He had seen enough of her already. Ashley washed her face and combed through her blonde locks. The shirt was exactly long enough to cover her ass and not a centimeter longer.

Happy had thought of driving her back to the club house at first, but without even really telling himself why, decided otherwise. Only when she was standing in his room, it doomed on him, it was the first time he had brought someone there without intending to bang and then throw her ass out of his bed without even saying goodbye. He just needed to know, that while he was asleep, she was right there in his reach, if Bell somehow found out where they were. Although he doubted Mayans knew where he lived, the one who had attacked Ashley here had probably just seen him dropping her off. But just in case, he wanted her next to him, until the club was up and ready to think of a better solution.

He was already in his bed, when the bathroom door opened. The sunray hit her eye as she walked cautiously towards the bed. "I'll close the curtains," she killed the silence. Happy admired the view Ash was offering, when she raised her hands up to grab the curtains from both sides. Her shirt rose just enough, to give him a glimpse of what those shorts had been hiding before.

She climbed under the covers and turned her back to Hap. By the sound of it, he made the same move.

Ashley woke up with a headache and a weigh resting on her side. For a second she didn't dare to move, not knowing, where she was. Soon she remembered, who exactly was holding her close with a strong hand around her waist. The hand wasn't all she could feel. Something, by the feel of it quite impressive and hard, was slammed against her lower back. "Oh no," Ashley thought. She wanted to move, but something other than a hand was holding her in place – her mind. She didn't really want to break that closeness.

As she wondered, how long they had been in this sweet embrace, his hand slightly moved. That movement froze Ashley in place. The only thing that wasn't frozen, was her heart. The stupid thing was working overtime, making Ashley wonder, if he somehow could also hear, how fast it was beating.

Softly his hand moved from her waist to her leg. The touch of his fingertips left behind a burning sensation that travelled through her whole body. His hand found a way under her shirt and moved slowly to her stomach, it felt like he was drawing on her skin with his fingers. Unable to hold it any longer, she let out a soft moan. Happy apparently took it as an invitation to further his hand's reach. It travelled upwards to cup one of her boobs through her bra. At the same time she felt his lips on her neck, making her shudder. With his mouth kissing her neck, his hand moved down south, until it reached its destination, which made it impossible for her to stay still. His fingers worked like magic on her and she was soon reaching her own destination. With her heavy moaning the only sound filling the room, Happy's lips reached up to her ear and he whispered, "Want to turn around?"

As the release of pure pleasure was making it hard for her to speak, she just moved enough to lie on her back, before she finally dared to look his way. His eyes were darker than she had ever seen before. She reached out and hooked her hand around his neck, pulling him closer. As he was not making the needed move forward with his head, she had to raise her own head up enough to kiss him. The way their lips moved against each other was magnificent. What started off as a sweet little kiss, soon turned into a full on passionate make out session, that didn't leave time for breathing. Happy moved on top of her without breaking apart from her mouth. As he started pulling her underwear down, to continue the task of making her scream out in pleasure, there was a doorbell.

"No," he broke the kiss and looked at her, breathing heavily underneath him.

The stupid doorbell was soon accompanied with someone physically banging at the door.


	19. Turn the page

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

**So as I do have a clear destination for this story, I'm a bit confused right now about how exactly I should get there. That's why this chapter took so long. Nevertheless, I'm still not so sure, if it was the right move, but you decide that. **

**I also started a new story "Sharpest lies", to keep my hands busy, while I figure this one out. I started that one off as a one-shot, but actually kind of got hooked on to the idea and I'm pretty sure I'm going to try writing two different stories simultaneously. So go check that one out, if you're interested in an even meaner Happy and sneakier OC.**

* * *

"We'll finish this," Happy spoke out before bending down to give her one last breathtaking kiss. The way he said it sounded more like stating a fact than giving a promise. At that state of mind she could only think of wanting to kill the person banging at the door and that way pulling her down from cloud nine.

Happy was not at all enthralled by the way someone had just ruined the most perfect morning. He had known exactly, when she woke up. Her breathing had changed from peaceful to careful to practically not inhaling and exhaling at all. The last part had started when he moved his hand just a tiny bit. She had frozen up instantly, but by the way that she didn't move away or more exactly push him away, Happy felt the courage to let her clearly feel his need to touch her.

It was all going smoothly, until whoever was outside started trying to punch through the door. Eventually Happy got downstairs and opened the front door, to simply glare at the guy grinning at him. "I'm guessing you found her," Tig stated forcing his way in. "Could have called though," he continued searching for Ashley with his eyes.

"We had some complications," Hap closed the front door.

"What kind of complications? Please tell me she's a wildcat and you had to tie her down to your bed," Tig's eyes were glowing with excitement.

Before Happy could say a word, Ash appeared on the stairs, "I'm such a wildcat, that he needed Mayans help to tie me down."

"What?" every bit of joy in Tig's eyes was instantly replaced with fury.

"Where are you off to?" Hap stopped Ashley mid-step from moving towards the door.

"Yeah, thanks for the hospitality, gotta go now," turning to Tig she continued, "think you could give me a lift?"

"You're staying," Happy started, blocking her way. Opening the door for Tig, he added, "I'll bring her to the club house."

Eyeing Ashley curiously, Tig stepped out saying only, "Alright then."

As soon as the door closed behind Tig, Ashley turned to look at Hap, "You'll be alright without my companionship, believe me, Smiley… now could you please just give me a ride, as you so politely sent Tig away."

"Oh yes I will," Hap backed her to a wall. He caught her by surprise. After she had had a second to realize, what exactly was going on, Ashley tried to stop him from getting closer than he already was. "That thing upstairs, it was just that, a thing. No need to even talk about it," she avoided his gaze.

"Who said anything about talking," Happy answered with his raspy voice, softly sliding his fingers down her arm.

"I don't … " she started but couldn't finish, as Happy had picked her up, to balance the difference they had in height. Without waiting for the permission, he kissed her. His mouth was demanding and not taking no for an answer. Every piece of clarity she had was quickly replaced with passion. And an urging need for more.

Impatiently he started ripping her clothes off. The roughness of his moves was as terrifying as it was turning her on. As he had gotten rid of the last pieces of clothing covering her and his hand started travelling all over, she let out a soft whimper, which made him smirk.

He was even quicker with his own clothes. Most of his body was covered with tattoos and she loved every one of them. A smile curled her lips as she eyed the part of him, that showed exactly how much he wanted her.

They were so done with foreplay, that he simply shoved her down on the sofa to quickly position himself between her legs. Before closing the distance between their bodies, he held her head still to look into her eyes. For a moment all those emotionless walls that usually stood there were all gone, his gaze was soft and personal. It was a look she had never seen on him before. But as soon as she wrapped her legs around Hap, to pull him towards her, the unexplainable look on his face faded away and back was the familiar 'I don't know if I'm thinking of fucking you or killing you' face.

"Say you want this," Happy fondled her boob with one hand, while holding himself up with the other. The fashion in which his hand moved on her body and found its way to feel up the inside of the most intimate spot on her body, there was no question of whether or not she wanted this.

"Shut up and do me," she murmured arching her back to his touch.

Happy didn't need her to say that twice, he lowered himself and soon they were moving together in a powerful rhythm fueled by lust and longing.

After they came almost simultaneously, neither one of them said a word. They just laid there in each other's embrace, until Ashley rose up to gather the clothes lying on various places. Happy watched her storm around in silence. She got herself dressed and without looking at him, she simply walked towards the door, "Well… I'll take a cab, thanks."


	20. Keeps on giving

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

Thoughts of stopping her from leaving wandered through his head, still Happy decided to let her have some space. Nonetheless he needed to make sure, she really did intend on going back to TM and not somewhere else, so he collected his clothes and headed out.

Ash was already nowhere to be seen. Hap jumped on his bike and started it to follow her, hoping she really did take a cab.

…

Ashley practically ran from his house. The way things had spiraled, was not planned. _Way to make thing complicated, good job Ashley, _she bashed at herself. Not to say that she didn't like having Happy on top of her, reminding what it felt like, when pure happiness runs through your whole body. But still the way it all happened, it was like she had no control and that simple thought scared her the most. That was not the way she wanted to feel about anybody. She had never been a puppet to someone and she was definitely not planning on becoming one for Happy.

Ashley just needed to forget him and all those feelings she didn't dare to admit. He was not the reason she was here. Doing what she did best in situations like this, she directed every last bit of energy and focus she could grasp on Clay and the task of figuring out a way to get him free from that bogus charge.

She decided it was time to have a little chat with Jax. Also all of her belongings were still in the club house, so at one point she would simply be forced to go back there. _Might as well just get it over with_, she thought.

The whole town was alarmingly quiet. Eventually she got herself a cab, although searching for it in a town like this turned out to be more complicated than she could have ever imagined. Just as the cab driver dropped her off, she could see Happy's bike closing up. "Great," she ignored him and moved inside.

"Jax here?" she asked the prospects shooting pool.

"He's in there," the bigger one pointed at chapel.

Without knocking, she barged in. Jax was sitting at the head of the table, writing something down to a small pad, while a little boy sat on the table, tracing the lines of the reaper carved into the big wooden table with his model-bike. Ashley was more than surprised by the sight. "I… I'll come back later," she turned to leave the room.

"No, come in," Jax stood and picked up the little boy playing on the table. The child eyed her curiously. He moved to the doorway and waved over a crow eater, telling her to keep an eye on Abel. _Abel, _Ashley repeated in her head. That must have been his oldest.

Closing the door behind him, he motioned at her to sit down.

"No thanks, I'm not planning on staying," she glared at him.

Jax cocked an eyebrow.

"I'm not exactly sure, how you managed to pin that murder on Clay, but I will find out," she stated, "I'd say I expected more from you, after all we do have some shared blood running in our veins, guessing I got all the wisdom genes?" she continued keeping her gaze on him.

"I'd say that wisdom went out the window, when you tied yourself to the Russian mob," he shot back.

"Oh, was I a research topic for Juice?" she moved to the other side of the table, a bit taken aback by Jax's knowledge on her. That was not information easy to find. Actually it was information impossible to find. How the hell did he knew about that?

"There was no need for that, that Maxim guy was real helpful connecting the dots," Jax moved to sit down. Pulling out what looked like a punch of various letters, he shoved it her way, "guessing you also only no half the story or you wouldn't be so keen on protecting that son of a bitch."

"If you're hinting at the fact that Clay organized the hit on Tara and had his part in your father's accident, then I'm up to date, thanks for the concern," she shoved the pack of letters back his way.

"He did it for the club and I'm more than sure you would have done the same thing in his place," she pulled out a chair to sit down.

"For the club?" Jax practically yelled at her. "More like for him and his greediness, do you believe in Santa Claus and other fairytales too?"

"I suggest you start reading. Oh and by the way the last women knowing about what's written in there, was instantly on Clay's target list, I wonder why is that," he stood and dropped the pack of letters in front of her. "And be careful, I wouldn't put it past him, sending assassins after his own daughter. There is no meaning to the word 'family' for him, when power and money are involved," he left the chapel leaving Ashley boiling with rage.

Wanting to burn the whole place down, starting with those letters staring at her, she tried to calm down. _I already know the truth, reading those won't change a thing,_ she assured herself. Still she needed to be sure.

After finishing the last one, her eyes were burning. Ashley hadn't cried in a long time, she looked at the ceiling to make the water disappear from her eyes. As much as she tried, she couldn't keep the single tear from escaping her eye. She didn't want to believe it, but those letters felt like the real truth. She simply knew and she might have known it the whole time, but the desperate need for her father's words and promises to be true, kept her from acknowledging it. There was only one thing that could have made her hate him – lying. And he had lied to her from the beginning.

Wiping the tear off, she stood up. _This is not the time to start feeling things,_ she repeated over and over. She collected herself for a moment before exiting the chapel. All eyes were turned on her, looking for Jax, she found him sitting on the coach, playing with Abel. Ignoring the cloud of attention she apparently had stepped on, Ash moved to stand in front of Jax, before dropping the pack of letters on his lap and smiling at him, "Guess I'm out of your hair, good luck with keeping the murder charge in place, hope he'll rot in hell."

Turning her back to him, she continued, "I'll be on the first flight out." As she said it, she felt her hand being grabbed from behind. Looking down at it, she saw a small head peering at her. Her startled stare found Jax, by the look of it he was as shocked as she. Standing up and pulling Abel with him, he looked into Ashley's eyes and moved closer to whisper into her ear "the Russians were behind Clay's arrest, that Maxim wants you back beside him and Clay was an obstacle in his way, he said it so himself, that's how I knew about your relations."

The day just kept on giving. The sadness and betrayal she already felt was instantly tripled. Only this time there were no tears trying to escape her boundaries, there was just rage with no limits. She felt point blank murderous.

Simply nodding at Jax, without looking at him, she turned to head to her room. So there was no point in going back to Europe. Yet there was also no reason to stay in Charming. Still she had to get away from it all. She needed a new life.

Packing her suitcase, she heard her door open. "Where are you going," Happy asked, letting the door close behind him.

"Away," was all she mumbled, not even bothering to look at him.

"You always run away?" he stared at the back of her head.

"What's it to you?" she snapped at him, turning around she continued, "go get yourself one of those adoring bitches crawling at your feet and just pretend I'm not here, cause soon enough I won't be."

He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her closer, locking his eyes with her, he simply spat it out, "I want you here."

Breaking the hold he had on her, she walked past him, to open the door, "Don't you get it, I'm sick of people betraying me… starting with the guy who practically raised me and ending with my own father. You know what? I don't need this shit. I don't trust you and I never will, so just let me go."

Happy stared at her for a moment in disbelief before walking out. Never in his life had he said something like that to a girl. "Let me go" was not the reaction he was prepared for. But if she wanted it that way, well he was not going to run after her and beg. He went straight back to the bar area, "beer," he growled at the girl serving drinks. She had brown hair and clothes that didn't leave much to imagination. His considering stare made the crow eater smile knowingly. He took her hand and directed her on his lap. She was all too willing to grind on the growing bulk in his pants. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Ashley enter the room. He felt no shame, actually she was the one, who had suggested he'd get himself some love from the sweetbutts.

She looked at him for a second, before laying her bag on the barstool and whipping out her cell. Ashley turned to a blonde standing next to her, "Hey, where can I get a number for the cab."

She was too busy tapping in the number, that she didn't even notice a person stopping next to her.

"Hakkad kuhugi minema?" {_"Going somewhere?"__} _brought her out of her thoughts. Her mouth fell open, as she looked at E gazing at her with a smile as big and bright as the sun.


	21. Roses at your feet

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

"What the hell?" Ashley's mouth fell open. Looking at the short brown-haired girl next to her, she almost dropped the phone in her hands. "Emma?" she mouthed with surprise.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Emma stated with a wide grin, pulling Ashley into a strong hug.

"What are you doing here?" Ashley asked suspiciously, drawing away from her.

Emma looked around at all those eyes tracking their every move. "Can we perhaps talk in private," her eyes made a full circle around the room until they finally stopped on Ashley.

"Mmm, okay," Ash furrowed her eyebrows and showed her the way to the dorms.

"What's going on, you're freaking me out.. How did you even get here?" Ashley fired at Emma, practically pushing her inside and shutting the door behind them.

"I didn't know where else to go. Maxim has lost his mind, he's point blank crazy," Emma sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed her temples.

Ashley moved to sit down next to her. "Does he know you're here?" she asked looking up at the ceiling board with growing anger.

"Didn't exactly say good-bye to him, but yeah I'm guessing he's aware of my absence," Emma peered at Ashley.

"Shit," Ashley stood up, "I'm not going back to him, neither should you."

"He will find me and he'll find you too," Emma said, clearly terrified. There was not a glimpse of doubt hidden in that sentence.

Ashley looked at the small girl sitting on her bed, she was a few years younger than her, but nonetheless they had hit it off right away when Maxim introduced them what felt like ages ago. To him she was much like Ashley, a charity case he had taken in to be trained into a loyal soldier, only that the soldier part did not turn out exactly the way he had planned, Emma didn't have the guts to hurt people.

To Ashley she was the only person in the whole wide world that could be titled as her friend. And by the looks of it, she was now just as much on the outs with the mob as she. Getting away from everything and everyone, including both the MC world and the mob was one thing when you were alone. Having to take care of Emma too, made it all that much more difficult.

"I'm sorry, of course I am glad to see you, just that it has already been a rough day and seeing that you are just as much in a pickle as I am, makes it all even worse," Ash softened her gaze and gave her a small smile.

"I was just planning on hitting the road, but now I don't know. We should really plan our next move," Ash held out her hand to pull her up, "we should stay here for the night though."

"I'm real sorry for all this, Ash," Emma apologized.

"We'll be alright, I'll think of something, but for the night let's just enjoy our reunion, or what do you say?" Ashley suggested with a devilish smile.

"I'd say, why the hell not, resting on the fact that there might not be that many chances for that in the near future," Emma winked at her knowingly.

"Hey,Jax," Ashley stopped Jax from moving past them as they re-entered the club area. "I'm going to stay for one more night, if that's okay with you.." Ashley forced her gaze to stay on Jax and not roam around for Hap.

Jax simply nodded eyeing Emma.

"That's Emma by the way," Ashley stated.

"Hi, I'm Jax," Jax held out his hand.

"Pleasure to meet you, Jax," Emma gave him her best smile.

"What do we have here? A present for me, doll-face?" Tig appeared next to Jax, eating Emma with his eyes.

"Name's Tig, beautiful," Tig kissed Emma's held out hand.

"What a gentleman," Emma chuckled. "I'm Emma"

Ashley couldn't help but laugh at Tig. The man was persistent and bold. No wonder she had liked him from the start. Listening to Tig try to put his moves on Em, Ashley felt her phone vibrate. On the screen it read 'unknown number'. She raised her eyebrow and moved a bit further away from the crowd to answer it.

"Ashley," Maxim stated with his unmistakable Russian accent.

"Should have guessed it was you," Ashley sat down on the small stairway, "I'm not coming back, if that's why you're calling.

"You've been talking to you brother I see. Well the thing with your so called dad needed to be done, you simply don't belong there and I had to help you see that too," he said with his calm tone.

"I don't need your help to see anything anymore. I'm done," Ashley yelled at her phone.

"You sure about that?" he ignored her screaming and carried on with his alarming calmness.

"I'm saying this real slow now, so that your thick Russian brain would also understand, I AM DONE WITH YOU."

"You're either with me or you're dead, my dear" he hung up the phone.

Ashley stared at her feet, trying to figure out the next move. First thing in the morning they should head south. Maybe Colombia or Chile? Where ever they were going, the place needed to be far away. Not admitting it to herself, she felt a bit sorry leaving Charming. Her eyes searched for Happy. As soon as she found him, she regretted it. He was busy sucking the life out of some crow eater's mouth. She rose and moved to where Tig and Emma were apparently having a drinking contest. "Count me in," she pulled herself a glass.

As hours passed, Ash felt her head getting heavy. She knew she needed to stop destroying her brain cells right away or she would not be sober enough in the morning to get on the road.

"I'll go lay down, guys," Ashley yawned at Tig and Emma, "and hey Tiggy, keep it in your pants."

…

"Another round, my lady?" Tig showed a vodka shot Emma's way.

"You think I can't handle it? You're forgetting where I come from, this thing you call vodka here tastes like lemonade to me," Emma joked, raising the liquor to her lips. Wanting to turn around to put her empty shot-glass on the table behind her, she bumped into Jax.

"Sorry," she mumbled, feeling lost in his eyes.

Jax on the other hand was busy searching for something with those blue eyes, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what exactly?" Tig stepped closer.

"That ticking sound," Jax moved behind the bar and crouched.

"FUCK, EVERYBODY OUT NOW," he yelled on top of his lungs.

"ABEL," Jax ran to the dorms. They managed to get out just as the whole place got shred into pieces by a loud explosion.

Happy watched the whole place go up in flames. Scanning around for Ashley he couldn't find her. "Where's Ash?" he headed over to Tig and Jax.

"She… ," the words got stuck in Tig's throat.

"WHAT, she was with you!" Happy grabbed him by his shirt.

"She went to bed, Hap," the look on Tig's face was a mixture of guilt and horror.

Happy went numb watching the house crumble underneath the fire, he couldn't move a muscle, the moment felt like forever and the only noise accompanying it was the sound of Ashley's friend sobbing in Jax's arms.


	22. One heart missing

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

It was so noisy, people buzzing around screaming and crying. A big fire truck was just entrenching the parking lot.

"She got out," Jax called out, trying to console Emma crying in his embrace hysterically.

She must have gotten out. There was no other way. Happy just couldn't cope with the fact that she could be inside those flames, dead and gone. So he just kept staring at the ruin of what ten minutes ago was the club's sanctuary, waiting for her to appear out of nowhere with some snarky comment about how the they should be more careful playing with hand-grenades.

But there was no sign of her. Nothing.

Happy stayed there watching the firemen do their job, until the raging fire was tamed completely. He even waited for the forensics team to finish up. He needed to hear firsthand that they didn't find any remains from the scene. Most of the members of SAMCRO were there too, waiting for the same info and a permit to collect everything useful from the club house, once it was somewhat safe to enter.

A forensics guy walked out and headed in Jax's direction. Happy stood up from his bike and walked over there.

"I'm sincerely sorry to inform you, but we found remains, by the looks of it female. Right now we're still waiting for DNA results. We'll inform you as soon as possible," the guy said looking at Jax.

"Where's Ashley," Gemma pushed her way to Jax.

Jax just shook his head at her, looking down.

Gemma burst out crying instantly. Happy had never even seen her like that, the simple thought distracted him from thinking about Ash who now literally was in ashes. He couldn't stay there any longer. Hap strode to his bike and left without saying a word to anyone. There was only one person he wanted to talk to.

He got to her house faster than usual. It might have been related to the fact that he really didn't care about speed limits or even watching the traffic for that matter.

"Son," her mother smiled from her bed. She was sick and the thought of losing her too stabbed Hap to his heart like a switchblade.

He gave her a kiss on the cheek and sat down next to the bed, reaching out for her hand.

"Oh, Happy," she eyed him worryingly.

"I don't want to talk about it," he avoided her gaze.

"You never do," she gave him an encouraging smile.

"Don't leave me," he gently squeezed her fragile hand.

"Love never leaves you and I love you more than anything in this world," her mother's words were firm and loud.

"You look tired, son, you should lay down," she smiled at him.

Happy simply nodded and rose to move to his old room.

Every time Hap closed his eyes, he could see her face. It was the face of disgust from when their eyes had locked for the last time, when he was with the sweetbutt . It was all his fault. Had he not been so busy trying to teach her a lesson and thinking only with his dick, he might have seen her leave the room and then he could have gotten her out of there before it was too late. Ashley was dead because of him.

His phone rang. "Hap, we got the results, the DNA, they don't have it in the system. But considering where she was from and the job she had, it's quite possible that she didn't have her DNA in any system, at least not in the States," Jax said, "the wake is tomorrow… I'm sorry brother, I know there was something between the two of you."

"Got it," Hap shut off his phone and closed his eyes with the determination of sleeping until it was all just a distant memory.

He slept for what felt like a week or even two. He pushed himself up from the bed and stared at the clock, he had been sleeping for a whole day, which meant that the wake was just hours away. Did he even have the right to go there?

He went to check on his mother. She was looking more alive than she had yesterday, sitting half-way up and knitting something. He forced on a soft smile and asked if she needed anything.

"I'm good," she put down her work in progress and waved him over. Reaching for his hands, she looked deep in his dark eyes and said, "Whatever you're hiding from in here, you should go and deal with it, it's the only way forward."

Happy knew she was right. She simply always was. He also knew that not saying good-bye to Ashley would haunt him afterwards. Actually not saying sorry to her would. He kissed his mother good-bye and headed towards Gemma's place, the wake was probably held there now that the club-house was gone. But first he needed to drop by his own house for a quick shower and a chance of clothes.

It turned out to be a really poor idea, the sight of his living room brought up very vivid memories of Ashley moaning underneath him. The room even smelled like her.

When he finally got to Gemma's, the place was already crowded to the maximum the space was capable of holding. He didn't want to look at Tig or that Emma-girl, even though he knew they were not guilty here, he was. Still Hap avoided them and moved towards the room Ashley's urn of ashes was resting. He closed the door behind him and put his hand on top of what was left from her.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled closing his eyes.

The realization of the moment made his eyes burn. The sight of her ashes hurt him physically. He hadn't known her that long, but even with that small timeframe she had managed to get past those barriers securing his heart. He couldn't lie to himself, not anymore.

"I love you," he whispered.

He didn't want to stay there any longer than that. Actually he didn't want to stay in Charming in general. Everything there now reminded him of Ashley.

Happy exited the room and searched for Jax.

"I want to transfer back to Tacoma."

"We need you here, Hap," Jax said taken aback by his request.

"I have to go," Happy answered with absolute certainty.

"We'll put it on vote tomorrow, but know that Redwood's patch is always there waiting for your return," Jax nodded understandingly and pulled him into a hug.


	23. Don't damn me

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

She had lost track of time. At first she had tried counting days, figuring that three meals were equal with approximately 24 hours. However due to the fact that being held prisoner in somewhere that didn't even have a single window made sleeping the only possible diversion from feeling sorry for herself, she soon got confused and gave up. It had been more than two months. That was for sure.

"Ashley, my dear. I don't like how you have forced my hands here, seeing you locked up just breaks my heart," Maxim took a seat behind the bars that were separating her from freedom.

She couldn't believe her ears. That motherfucker was crazier than ever, sitting there and blaming her for hurting him. Was he on meth?

"But I am glad you're making progress with that wrongfully directed aggression. Are you beginning to understand why things needed to go this way?" he smiled at her questioningly .

"I do understand now that believing in the possibility of simply hiding from you was a big mistake," she wrapped her arms around the metal bars. That was not a lie, but the way he would translate, was not representing the real idea behind it. She was not regretting simply thinking of hiding, she was sorry for not realizing that her only chance to start from a clean slate was to kill him, before he kills her. Still getting to him from behind those bars was a bit difficult, so Ashley needed to make him believe, she was grasping the thought, that she should have never gone against him and she would never try that again. Because obviously since he hadn't murdered her by now, he must have had some faith in getting her back on his right side.

But for that kind of an unfortunate result she must have been delusional or suffering under amnesia. She wasn't. Ashley remembered exactly the night that had led to this point. She had gone to bed in Charming, feeling tired of watching Happy suffocating some chick with his tongue and Emma flirting with Tig and Jax. She had barely made it to her room, when two guys grabbed her, tied her up and slammed duck-tape over her mouth. There had also been a girl quite similar to her lying dead on her bed. The Russian guys dragged her out through the window, she tried to scream and fight, but no-one heard her silenced cries for help. They threw her into a trunk of a car and as they were moving away she heard the loud boom.

After driving more than a few hours she finally saw daylight, they were dragging her from the car to a jet plane. Maxim was there waiting with a huge smile on his face. He was merciful enough to assure her that everyone had somehow gotten out from the explosion in one piece, but would she try anything he would send his guys back to finish the job. Maxim also told her that SAMCRO would not come looking for her, he had made sure that they would find remains of an unidentifiable female.

"I want to let you out of here, Ashley," stopped her from recalling the events that had brought her to this point.

"Then do that. We both know that the trust between us is gone, but I have learned my lesson. There is no going against the mob, unless I want everyone around me dead," Ashely gave him the best defeated look she could create and still be believable.

"That's what I was hoping you would say," he stood up waving a guard over.

"Vitali here will shadow your every move, so behave, or there is no point in keeping you alive, no matter how much I love you. Also don't try reaching out to Charming, they would pay for that just as painfully as you" Maxim said, as the guard unlocked the door.

Ashley simply nodded.

…

It took her more than a month to get hold of a weapon. That Russian bastard was practically glued to her, so sneaking a knife under her jacket was a risky move, but she managed to pull it off. "I want to speak to Max," she told her silent 'bodyguard'.

"I'm bored," Ashley started as soon as she saw Maxim, "don't you have a job for me, or why exactly are you even keeping me around if not for torturing people you don't like?"

"That's the spirit," he laughed rising from behind his desk and moving towards Ash with open arms.

"Oh, it's the best kind of spirit," she said surprising Vitali with a quick move and slicing his neck open.

Maxim was fast on his way back behind his desk to grab for his gun, but Ash was quicker, she tackled him from behind and not wasting any time, with the same move she did on Vitali, sent Maxim to the place he belonged- hell.

Ashley removed Vitali's gun from his belt and collected Maxim's secret stash, she was all ready to get the hell out of there or die trying. The house was quite empty, the guards on front gate were a bit of a hassle, but eventually they were both down on the ground bleeding to death. She had no mercy left to give, it was either she or they in that situation. Once Ashley was out, she ran towards the nearest town as fast as her feet would go, keeping slightly off the main road.

It was exhausting, she felt like her lungs would collapse, or her legs would break apart from her body. Finally Ashley saw the place she was looking for, she had reached Moscow. Lucky for her Maxim's mansion was not that far away from it. It was a risk to go to her old apartment, but she needed the hidden money and bloodless clothes it was holding. She didn't have her key though, so she had to break in to her own home. The money was still there, although the place had definitely been visited by someone other than her.

In a hurry she grabbed her stuff, changed clothes, and headed toward the airport hoping to catch the first flight back to the States.

On the way back she kept telling herself, that everything was going to be okay. Maxim was dead and whoever was taking his throne would not be stupid enough to come after her again.

She closed her eyes thinking about people she couldn't wait to see.

…

Standing behind the gates that once kept outsiders away from SAMCRO clubhouse, she felt her chest tighten up. It had all been because of her. Did they even want to see her alive?

She climbed back into the cab she had hailed previously and gave the directions to Happy's place. There was no sign of him or his bike. Ashley had no idea, where anyone else lived, she hadn't even been to Jax's or Clay's place. It took her some time to come up with the conclusion, that the fastest way to get some information was to find the hospital Tara worked in.

"Hi, I'm looking for doctor Knowles," Ashley told the receptionist.

"She's on the rounds, but you could wait by her office, it's on third floor," the girl said.

"Thank you," Ashley smiled at her politely.

She got on the elevator and pushed the button. A hand stopped the doors from closing.

"Jax," Ashley gasped for air.

Jax simply stood there with a baffled look, "How?"

Without thinking Ashley pulled him into a hug, "Russians kidnapped me before they blew up the place, they also killed some innocent girl to make it look like I died there. I'm so sorry for all of the shit that followed me here."

"Where is everyone, I went by Happy's place, it looked empty," Ash rambled.

"We have temporary clubhouse in an old ice cream shop and Happy," his gaze trailed off, "he transferred back to Tacoma."

"Why?"

"I think you should ask him that," he started, "but before you go out looking for him, I bet there are other people around here who would like to see you again."

"I know," Ashley nodded and wrote down the exact directions to the new clubhouse.

* * *

**Hell yeah, we're going to Tacoma! Also be warned, Kozik will take on a major role in this story from now on. **

And as always thank you all for nice feedback, I especially love it when you guess what's going to happen next! :)


	24. But the fire's still burning

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

"And this oldie here is supposed to be capable of getting me further than the end of the parking lot?" Ashley asked suspiciously, eyeing the blue bike in front of her.

"Hey, you were the one demanding on going there alone and my original offer still stands, you can ride me.. I mean with me," Tig rested his arm on Ash's shoulder.

"I missed you too, Tiggy," Ash grinned at the man next to her.

"Well I guess we'll see how far it takes me," she finally sighed looking at Emma walking their way.

"Ash, a word?" Em stopped on the other side of the bike.

"Yeah, I'll leave you two to discuss about make-up and fairytales," Tig raised his hands up in surrender.

"You sure you don't want me to come with?" Emma started as soon as Tig was out of hearing reach.

"Positive," Ashley nodded, "I'll be fine."

"I believe you will be, just thought that you might like some company after all you've been through," Emma was still looking at her worriedly.

"I'm fine," Ashley assured her with a small smile, "I should head out before it gets dark."

"Yeah right, just admit that you can't wait to see your biker-boyfriend," Emma smirked.

"He's not my boyfriend, I just think calling him to announce my resurrection is a bit weird," Ashley said adjusting her helmet.

…

Ashley stopped to check her phone's GPS. The sun was already setting, so the thing she had said to Em had not been a total lie, she actually really didn't look forward to riding in dark alone. Her GPS showed to directions, one was the main road she was on, and the other a short-cut. Making a quick decision, she headed for the short-cut.

She had been riding for more than an hour when the inevitable happened. She didn't need the black smoke to tell her, that the bike had ran its course and was now ready to sleep for the next few centuries. "FUCK," she yelled out in the middle of nowhere. As it turns out, she should have kept to the main road, at least there was traffic. Here she had seen about five cars going in the opposite direction. Ashley jumped off the bike and tried to look for the problem in the cloud of smoke, hoping it had just overheated or something and needed some time to rest and cool down.

She sat there waiting for about fifteen minutes before calling Tig.

"Should have taken your offer," Ash sighed looking at the starry sky.

"That bad huh, how far are you?" he asked.

"Far… and all alone. I took the short-cut and it is like a traffic-free zone."

"I'll head out, stay there," Tig said.

"NO, wait! Someone's coming… I'll hitch a ride or something," Ash cut him off.

"You crazy? Just wait there, I'm coming," Tig commanded.

"Calm down, I'll check it out and call you afterwards," Ash hung up the phone.

She waved with her phone's flashlight at the thing coming her way. As it closed up it was clear that it had only one headlight. Soon a black bike slowed down and a guy jumped off.

"Border check-up?" the guy asked smiling, while removing his helmet to reveal the blonde hair underneath it.

"Yup, license and registration please, and after that would you perhaps look at my sleeping beauty over there," she pointed at her Harley.

"Sure thing, I'm always out looking for a damsel in distress," he walked closer.

"And now you managed to find one," she grinned, "I'm Ashley by the way."

"Kozik," he held out his hand.

Her eyes hovered over the cut he was wearing, she let go of his hand and moved behind him.

"Checking me out?" he chuckled.

"Kind of," she made a circle around him before continuing, "funny thing, I'm actually just on my way to Tacoma charter."

"You are?" Kozik was clearly surprised.

She nodded. "I have some unfinished business with Happy," she clarified before picking up her ringing phone.

"I'm fine, I stumbled upon a son… Kozik," she told Tig, looking at Kozik's curious eyes.

"He wants to scream at you," Ashley held her cell out for Koz.

He took it and mostly listened, trying to hide the amused look on his face. "Yeah I get it," he finally said before giving the phone back to Ash.

"You know I went to your funeral," Kozik said raising his head from her bike after Ash ended the short call.

"Too bad I couldn't make it, got held up you know," she shrugged.

"So that's the unfinished business you have with Hap," he said knowingly. "Well anyways there's not much I can do about your bike right now, but I can give you a lift and send someone out here to collect it later."

"That would be really helpful," Ash smiled at him.

"Hop on, princess," Koz patted on the back of his bike.

"Sure thing, my knight on black Harley," she laughed holding on to his shoulders as she positioned herself behind him.

Ashley was beyond relieved that she did not have to wait for Tig on the side of the road for who knows how long and instead was now back on her way to Tacoma. As they were riding, Ash kept trying to figure out what she was going to say, once she saw Hap. Yelling out 'SURPRISE' was probably not the right way to go.

Sooner than expected they were at the clubhouse. Ashley felt her heart pick up the pace, as her feet touched the ground.

"Wait here, I'll get him out, not so sure what's the situation inside," Kozik said cautiously.

Ashley bit her lower lip thinking about what he was suggesting. Sure thing Hap had not turned into a monk just cause he thought she was dead.

She stood there waiting as Kozik disappeared inside, flinching every time someone opened the door.

Finally Ashley saw Hap stepping out, she let out the breath she didn't even realize she was holding.

He was talking to Kozik about something she couldn't hear. Koz pointed her way and Hap started walking to where she was standing in the shadows. Happy was half-way there, when he stopped dead in his tracks.


	25. Lure me into the dark

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

* * *

Happy simply stood there looking at her with that same unreadable expression she had missed so terribly. Figuring it was her turn to make a move Ash stepped out of the shadows and didn't stop until they were face-to-face.

He stared in disbelief as if she was a haunting hallucination. _Say something, just say something,_ her mind begged. But Happy was clearly speechless. Breaking their staring contest, Ash finally opened her mouth, "So Tig's going to kill me for ditching his bike on the side of the road."

"Sorry, too soon for jokes like tha.." she shook her head as her mind captured the bizarre situation they were in.

His palm touched her cheek, stopping her rambling. "It's really you," he whispered raising his other hand to hold her head still.

"Surprise?" she said questioningly. _What the hell is wrong with me, can I possibly sound more like an asshole, _she screamed at herself mentally.

He let go of her, taking a small step back. "We buried you," he closed his eyes.

"I know… I was taken by the mob and they made sure it looked like I died in the explosion," her vision got blurry as tears filled up her eyes.

Saying nothing, he closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her trembling body.

Ashley gazed at his face. His eyes were still closed, making it look as if his mind was somewhere else. She rose to her toes and softly pressed her lips on his. Her tender movement pulled him out of whatever he was experiencing. His hands grabbed her behind, as his mouth opened to deepen their kiss.

With a rapid movement he had picked her up and not breaking their kiss started moving towards the door behind the line of bikes. He kicked it open and carried her in. Ashley heard the door close as Hap laid her down on the hood of a dark blue cabriolet. Towering over her and holding her still with his strong arms, a small smile raised the corners of his mouth.

He dipped his head lower to kiss his way up to her lips, starting from her neck. At the same time his hands were busy unbuttoning her blouse. "This is not the time to take it slow," Ashley whined. With that comment clothes started flying. Soon they were both naked, entwined with each other. He was teasing her with his rhythm. "Jesus Christ, Hap, you're killing me," she moaned out.

He stopped moving altogether and raised his eyebrow.

"No-no, don't you dare stop," she tugged her nails inside his lower back trying to make him move.

With a devilish smile, he pushed himself closer to suck her lower lip and picked up speed.

She felt delirious as they finally collapsed side by side on top of the car. She peaked at him from the corner of her eye. "What happened there?" Ash touched the bandage on his chest.

"New tat," he wrapped his hand around hers.

"Was about time you got your first," she mocked.

He pulled her on top of him, "I… I missed you."

"Came as soon as I could," she arched her back to his lingering touch.

His hands stopped moving, "What do you mean by as soon as you could?"

"Well it took some time to make Maxim trust me enough to even let me see something that could be used as a weapon."

"How much time?" he glared at her.

"I don't know, about a month or something," she shrugged.

"And during that month you didn't have access to phones or Internet?"

She climbed off of him, "I did, but I couldn't reach out, they would have found out and I couldn't gamble with all of your lives again."

"So you just let us carry on thinking you're dead?" he growled accusingly.

"Are you serious?" she couldn't believe her ears.

"Am I serious? How selfish can you possibly be?" Hap was furious.

"I don't know what I was thinking coming here, you obviously are just as much of a dick as you were before," she threw on her clothes and bolted out.

…

Kozik had just gotten to his bike, as he saw Ashley practically ran out of the garage. And she did not look happy, nor was there anyone named Happy coming after her. He caught hold of her arm as she passed by.

"Everything okay, darling?" he asked, already knowing the answer. If Ash had been okay, she probably would not have looked as if she was ready to strangle a horse with her bare hands.

"Perfect," she faked a smile.

Even as messed up as she looked right now, he couldn't help but feel envious. Hap had someone like that and he blew it with seconds. Idiot.

"Eeh," he started, still holding on to her.

"Actually, do you know a place, motel or something, I could go for the night?" Ash stared at him impatiently.

"A motel? Well it's not a five-star thing, but I do have a spare bedroom," he suggested.

She took a moment to think, before nodding. "Thank you, you really do like helping damsels in distress," she couldn't help but return his sincere smile.

He tried not to stare, but his eyes were glued to her misbuttoned shirt and the sight it was offering. By the looks of it, she was not wearing a bra.

He forced his eyes away and pointed at her chest, "Interesting buttoning work you got there."

"Oh, sorry," she started fixing it.

"I ain't complaining, just though you might like to know," Kozik peaked at her, wishing he had said nothing.

"Such a gentleman," Ash climbed behind him.

Kozik almost missed the right turn, as his mind was too busy trying to calm down the storm in his pants, that the thought of Ash's almost bare chest touching his back had brought on. He needed to shake her off of his mind. Kozik knew better than to go after something or someone Happy considered as his. After all they were brothers and no chick should ever come between them.

"You must be hungry," he said after they had gotten inside.

"Starved," Ashley put down her bag.

Resting on the side of his kitchen counter and watching her gulp down the vodka shot he had just poured out, he felt the words slip out of his mouth. "Can I ask what happened?"

"Nothing, I just forgot who I was dealing with," she rolled her eyes.

"You sure about that? I'd say he has been like a different man since he came back here, you should give him time to figure out what just happened." He was telling the truth, she had changed Hap more than Happy himself would ever admit. Still trying to fix up the mess of a relationship-boat those two were sailing on felt oddly wrong.

Just as Ashley was ready to protest to everything Kozik had just said, there was a doorbell.

"I'll get it," Ash jumped down from where she was sitting and went to get the door. Only that it wasn't the hot and tasty pizza waiting behind the wooden door, it was Happy.

"No," she slammed the door in his face.


	26. Tell me a lie

Everything SOA related belongs to Kurt Sutter and FX. I only claim the ownership of Ashley and everything else that you haven't seen/ heard on TV.

**Sorry about my disappearance! I' m a bit busy with writing something way less fun than this at the moment, so I might not update my stories that often for some time. **

**But as always thank you all for follows/favorites/reviews !**

As it turned out, the door was not much of an obstacle for Hap. He stopped it from fully closing with his held out hand and pushed his way in. He was determined to make it right, lashing out on her like that before was not the way he wanted it to go. Happy knew he had blown the whole thing out of proportion and as he had finally come to that conclusion, she was already gone. Some prospect saw her ride off with Kozik, that sweet-talking idiot, who actually was just as big of a man-whore as any one of them.

"Come with me," he commanded, not even bothering to look at Koz, who after wavering on the doorway finally decided to move to the sofa and sit down, anticipating to see the drama about to unfold. Never had he ever seen Hap so bent out about a girl. And she, well she was definitely not looking like she even knew what surrendering felt like. The situation was promising, that was for sure.

"I ain't going anywhere with you," Ash sat down next to Kozik, "But you know, what I am going to do? I'm going to get as far away from you as possible."

"And until then thought you'd get with my brother?" Hap looked murderous. The way she instantly moved closer to him, it was obvious, why she was in here.

"Hey man, I just…" Kozik tried to say, but a hand slammed his mouth shut.

"If you think of me like that, then there isn't anything to really discuss here, is it," Ash removed her hand from Koz's face. It hurt her more than she was willing to admit. There were not that many people, whose opinion meant anything to her, but somehow that coldhearted bastard had still managed to get the VIP-spot on that small list. It took all she had in her not to scream at him for ruining everything. They were too similar, too stubborn for it to ever work. The concept of that was just now sinking in.

"Whatever," Hap shot her a last fireball of a glance and left.

Ash could feel Kozik eyeing her with caution. Well that had been fast, and awkwardly calm. They didn't even raise voices. Or really talk about what the hell had happened. He was dying to ask her, but was afraid it could bring on an all women side of her, with waterworks and proclamations of leaving men behind altogether.

"I'm not about to burst into tears," she finally said turning her head to look at him.

"Sure you don't want to talk things through with him?"

"Nothing to talk about," Ash got up, looking around for the promised spare bedroom.

"Thank you for not being an asshole," she bent down to give him a kiss on the cheek and left the living room.

He actually had not done anything bad, in fact he had even more than once suggested she'd talk things out with Hap. Still he did feel like an asshole, he wanted her. As awful as it was to admit, Kozik was relieved with how things had turned out. She was something special and if Happy couldn't hold on to her, well it was his loss.

With the sunny morning came the sad realization, she needed to go back to Charming. Way sooner than she had originally planned. Ashley couldn't lay down any longer, she needed a distraction to keep her mind from thinking about her messed up life, so she tip-toed out of the bedroom Koz had so generously offered. He was still asleep, so Ash decided to hop into the shower and try to wash the sorrow away. It didn't work. Actually as much as she was sad, the more she thought about Happy, the more her blood pressure rose. By the time she got out of the shower, Ash was literally considering going back to the clubhouse and satisfying her need to hit something… or rather someone.

"Sorry if I somehow woke you," Ashley smiled apologetically at Koz working on the coffee machine.

"Neh, you didn't," he waved it off, looking over his shoulder. He couldn't keep his eyes from wandering down the length of the towel wrapped around her tight body. Lifting his gaze he could see small water drops running down her shoulders and disappearing under the fabric covering her chest. Fighting his need to go over there right that second to pull that towel away and simply see the real deal and not just the one he imagined to be underneath it, he turned his head back to the kitchen counter and continued, "How are you planning on getting back?"

"I'm not sure." Ashley hadn't really thought about that. But still she was going, even if it meant walking or cartwheeling.

"So I was thinking.. Tacoma has been feeling a bit crowded lately, maybe I should go nomad or request patching back in to Redwood. Anyways it wouldn't hurt, if I checked it out for a day or two, so I could give you a lift," Koz said, pouring out two cups of steaming hot black liquid.

"Really? You are my true savior!" Ashley was in front of him quicker than he thought was possible. Meeting her and wrapping his tattooed arms around her, she sighed.

"Oh, sorry I'm so wet," she pulled away.

"That has never been a bad thing," he couldn't keep those words from leaving his lips.

Waiting for her reaction with caution, she finally rolled her eyes and let out a small laugh.


End file.
